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A  TWENTIETH  CENTURY 


History  and  Biographical  Record 


Branch  County,  Michigan. 


REV.  HENRY  P.  COLLIN,  M.  A. 

AUTHOR  AND  EDITOR. 


ILLUSTRATED. 


THE  LEWIS   PUBLISHING  COMPANY 

NKW  YORK     :;    CHICAGO 

1906 


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PREFACE. 


The  purpose  of  a  preface  is  generally  only  to  supplement  the  introductory 
chapters.  In  the  introductory  chapter  of  this  hook  the  aim  and  character 
of  it  as  planned  in  the  minds  of  the  makers  were  set  forth. 

The  editor  and  publishers  have  done  their  best  to  make  their  work 
what  they  promised  it  should  be,  and  they  have  given  no  small  amount  of 
labor  and  money  to  realize  their  plans.  The  editor  believes  that  the  volume 
fairly  fulfills  the  promises  made,  and  approximates  the  ideal  of  a  twentieth 
century  history  and  biographical  record.  It  is  thought  that  the  work  will 
be  one  of  value  and  interest  to  all  former,  present  and  future  residents  of 
the  county  of  Branch. 

In  the  execution  of  every  work,  however,  men  find  themselves  sub- 
ject always  to  certain  limitations  of  space,  time  and  abilit}'.  Generally 
no  one  becomes  so  conscious  of  how  much  more  might  have  been  done  in  - 
■  the  doing  of  any  work,  and  how  much  better  it  might  have  l^een  done, 
than  he  who  has  gone  through  with  it.  The  editor  is  very  sure  that  no  one 
will  see  as  much  that  seems  to  be  omitted,  or  so  much  lack  of  due  propor- 
tion as  he.  But  at  the  same  time  he  feels  that  he  may  reasonably  assume 
that  no  one  can  judge  as  well  \vhat  to  omit  where  much  must  be  omitted, 
as  one  who  has  gone  over '  the  entire  field,  and  has  seeri  the  variety  of  sub- 
jects and  the  immense  amount  of  matter  contained  within  it. 

The  writer  of  a  local  history  is  necessarily  dependent  to  a  large  degree 
uiwn  other  persons  for  material  and  for  co-operation.  It  is  a  pleasure  for 
the  editor  to  record  here,  on  the  one  hand,  the  kindly  willingness  of  the 
people  of  the  county  to  furnish  material,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  the  gen- 
erous co-operation  of  the  publishers  in  affording  ways  and  means  to  bring 
the  material  together  and  to  assist  in  putting  into  form.  In  this  mention 
of  co-operation  on  the  part  of  the  publishers,  special  acknowledgment  must 
be  made  of  the  assistance  rendered  by  the  general  historian  of  The  Lewis 
Publishing  Company.  To  him  credit  must  be  given  for  a  large  part  of  the 
work  of  preparing  the  general  history  for  the  press,  in  the  gathering  o£ 
material,  in  working  out  the  details  of  arrangement,  and  also  m  the  actual 
composition  of  copy.  .       .    ,  ,    ,  .       ,  .       . 

It  is  proper  as  a  matter  of  historical  record  that  mention  be  made  of 
those  to  whom  the  editor  has  been  specially  indebted  for  information  and 
assistance.  The  most  fruitful  sources  of  historical  data  are,  of  course,  the 
county  papers.  Mr.  Charles  H.  Newell,  the  proprietor  of  the  Coldwater 
Conner,  has  a  file  of  county  papers  in  the  Courier  office,  of  earlier  date  and 
more  nearly  continuous  than  any  other  file  or  collection-  in  the  county.     Mr. 


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iv  PREFACE 

Newell  has  given  us  free  access  to  these  files,  which  begin  with  1841.  The 
like  courtesy  has  been  shown  us  by  Mr.  Horace  Kitchel  of  The  Reporter, 
Mr.  John  S.  Evans  of  The  Sim  and  Th^  Star,  m  CoMwater,  by  Mr.  C.  W. 
Owen  of  the  Quincy  Herald.  Mr.  C.  H.-  Young  of  the  Quincy  Neivs,  Mr. 
A.  D.  Shaffmaster  of  the  Bronson  Journal,  Mr.  Will  L.  Robinson  of  the 
Union  City  Register-Weekly,  and  Mr.  Easton  of  the  Sherwood  Register. 

The  official  records  of  the  county  officers  in  the  court  house  are  in  some 
respects  more  valuable  than  newspaper  files.  To  Mr.  Henry  E.  Straight, 
county  clerk,  Mr.  Charles  F.  Carpenter,  register  of  deeds,  Mr.  Hiram  Ben- 
nett, county  treasurer,  Mr.  W.  Gienn  Cowell,  prosecuting  attorney,-  Mr. 
Charles  Hamilton,  county  surveyor,  Mr.  James  Swain,  county  commis- 
sioner of  schools,  and  Mr.  Daniel  E.  Weage,  county  drain  commissioner,  we 
are  indebted,  not  only  for  access  to  records  in  their  charge,  but  also  for 
favors  shown  otherwise  than  as  county  officials.  The  officers  of  the  city 
of  Coldwater  and  of  the  several  villages  and  townships  of  the  covmty,  have 
generally  been  willing  to  furnish  any  data  desired.  To  Mr,  Calvin  J.  Thorpe, 
secretary  of  the  Pioneer  Society  of  Branch  County,  Mr.  Horris  Wilson  of 
the  Quincy  Pioneer  Society,  and  Miss  Florence  M.  Holmes,  librarian  of  the 
Coldwater  Free  Public  Library,  our  acknowledgilients  are  due  for  kind- 
ness in  furthering  our  quest  for  historic  facts.  It  would  be  impracticable  to 
mention  the  names  of  the  many  men  and  women  in  all  parts  of  the  county, 
from  whom  information  has  been  received  that  has  been  incorporated  in 
this  volume.  To  all  these  the  editor,  on  his  own  behalf  and  on  that  of  The 
Lewis  Publishing  Company  as  well,  takes  this  opportunity  to  express  sincere 
thanks. 

It  is  proper  that  we  further  mention  that  Mr.  Fred  G.  Wahl,  Mr.  Henrv 
C.  Bailey  and  Mr.  Tom  L.  Robinson  have  assisted  in  writing  up  some  of 
the  subjects  of  the  genera!  history.  Mrs.  Jennie  C.  Donley  of  Coldwater 
took  the  photographic  views  from  which  nearly  all  the  illustrations  in  the 
history  have  been  made. 


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TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  I. 
The  County  as  a  Subject  of  History I 

CHAPTER  H. 
The  Creation  and   Survey  of  the  Coimty f) 

CHAPTER  HI. 
Topographical  Features  of  Branch   County — The  Drainage  System..      i6 

CHAPTER  IV. 
The  Indiairs  and  the  Early  Settlers'  Life  With  Tliem. 24 

CHAPTER  V. 
Xumljer,    Nature  and   Distribution  of  the   County's   People 28 

CHAPTER  VI. 
Routes    of    Inrinigratioir 33 

CHAPTER  VII. 
Forniation   o£    Townships 38 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
Settlement   and    Beginnings > 41 

CHAPTER  IX. 
Settlement  and   Beginnings    (Coutimied) 49 

CHAI'TER  X. 
County  Seat  Contest 60 

CHAPTER  XI. 

Settlelnent  and  Beginnings  (Continued) 65 

CHAPTER  XII. 
Settlement  and   Beginnings    (Continued) 78 

CHAPTER  XIII. 
The  City  of  Coldwater 93 

CHAPTER  XIV. 
Branch  Cotmty's   Villages 98 


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vi  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  XV. 
The  Agricultlira}  Industry — The  Grange Io8 

CHAPTER  XVL 
Mannfacturing   in  Branch   County Il6 

CHAPTER  XVII. 

Branch  County's  Banks  and  Einance 124 

CHAPTER  XVIH. 
Railroads,  Transportation  and  Communication 129 

CHAPTER  XIX. 
The    County's    Newspapers 138 

CHAPTER  XX. 
Education     148 

CHAPTER  XXI. 
Education   ( Continued)    157 

CH.APTER  XXII. 
The  State  Public  School — Branch  County  Infirmary 175 

CHAPTER  XXIII. 
Libraries — Activity  in  Literature,  Music,  .Art 181 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 
Religion   and   Cliurch   Organizations 190 

CHAPTER  XXV. 
Political  History  of  Branch  County 210 

CHAPTER  XXVI. 
Courts  and  Lawyers 214 

CHAPTER  XXVII. 
The   Medical    Profession 221 

CHAPTER  XXVIII. 
Fraternities  and  Clubs 237 

CHAPTER  XXIX. 

The   Pioneer  Society — Pioneer  Record 2^8 

CHAPTER  XXX. 

The  County  in  the  Cottntry's  Wars 256 

Lists  of  County.  Township  and  Village  Oihcials 297 


sedbyGoOgle 


INDEX. 


Abel,  Moses  T.— 768. 

Adams,  Wales.— quoted,  42 ;  sawmill,  43 ;  2io- 

Adolph,  Willard.— 828. 

Agriculture. — 108-113;     effects     of     drainage. 

Agricultural    Society.— Branch    county,    115. 

Air  Line  R.  R.— 132;  78;  g8. 

Aldrich,  Abram.— 75;  80. 

Aldrich,  Abram  J.— 141 ;   143 ;  186 ;  674, 

Algansee  township. — 39;  settlement  of,  8?-88; 
officials  of,  300. 

Alger,  Isaac  P. — 94;  223. 

Allen,  Alonzo  B. — 374. 

Allen,  D,  C  &  Co.— 96. 

Alumni— of  Coldwaler  High  School,  160-164; 
of  Quincy  High  School,  165-167;  of 
Union  City  High  School,  169-171;  of 
Bronson  High  School,  172-173;  of 
Shei-wood  High  School,  174. 

Ancient  Order  of  United  Workmen — 228; 
230. 

Anderson,  J.   H.— 829. 

Anderson,  Mrs.  Hattie.~5i6. 

Andrews,  William  L.— 188. 

Andrus,  Nelson  H. — 512. 

Ann  Arbor  convention. — 13. 

Arnold,    Samuel — 73;    Arnold's    Corners,    73. 

Art — Activity  in,  184. 

Austin,  Edmund.— 473. 

A  utom  obiles. — 1 36. 

Bailey,  H.  F. — 141. 

Bailey,  Willis  €.—143;  144;  186. 

Baker,  Joshua.— 85. 

Baldwin,  Newton. — 224, 

Ball  Bros.— 96. 

Banford,  J.  J.— ^52. 

Banking  and  Finance. — 124-128. 

Baptist  churches— 196  et  seq. ;  at  Coidwater, 
196;  Quincy,  197;  Algansee,  198;  Un- 
ion City,  198;  Bronson,  ig8;  Girard, 
199;  Kinderhoofc,  igg. 

Bar  Association  of  Branch   County.— 220. 

Barber,  Julius  S.— 94;  125;  335. 

Barlow,  Henry  H.— ai8;  579. 

Barnes,  Walton  J.— 714. 

Barnhart,   Martin, ^75. 

Bassett,  John. — 41 ;   47. 

Bassett,  L.  M.  &  Son.— 96. 

Batavia  township.— 39 ;  early  settlement,  46; 
population  in  1837,  46 ;  topography,  47 ; 
first  officials,  48;  officials  of,  301. 

Bater,  Samuel.— 471. 


Bates,  Edwin  R.— 331- 

Bates,  Julius  M.— 455- 

Battery  A.— 284-286. 

Beech,  John  _H.— 223;   450. 

Beardsley,  Ezra  E. — 771. 

Beers,  Calvin.— 476. 

Belote,  John  S.— 37- 

Bennett,  Charles  W.— 145;  187;  390- 

Bennett,  Hiram.— 121, 

Bennett,  Ida  D.— 187- 

Bennett,  Isaac — 464. 

Bennett,  Isaiah  W.— 79. 

Bennett,  James  K.— 83. 

Bennie.  James.— 46;  72;  73. 

Benton,  C.  P.— 214;  186;  210. 

Berry,  Enos  G. — 67;  loi ;  221. 

Berry,  Eira,— 67;  218. 

Berry,  Joseph.— 67;  101. 

Berry,  Samuel  H.— 37;  67- 

Bethel  township.— 40 ;  early  settlement,  44; 
early  roads,  44;  topography,  45;  pop- 
ulation in  1837,  45;  Snow  Prairie  set- 
tlement, 45;  first  officials,  46;  officials 
of.  303. 

Bidelman,   Horatio   N.— 640. 

Black  Hawk  Mill.— 51 ;  S3- 

Blackman,  Edsou. — 224;  603- 

Blackman,  J-  Morehouse,— 626- 

Blackwell,  George  W.— 535- 

Blake,  John  R.— 491- 

Bicycles.— 136. 

Bingham,  Lemuel,  blacksmith.^so. 

Bolfon    \    F— 50    54 

Booth    familj  of  Gilead  — 72. 

Bostwick,  E    E— 088 

Buundarie'; — Of  Branch  county,  i;  southern 
boundary  history  of,  1 1  following ; 
northern  bomidary  of  Indiana,  11; 
northern  boundary  of  Ohio,  12;  south- 
ern boundarv  delays  statehood  for 
Michigan,  13,  survey  of  southern 
boundary  when  begun,  14;  latitude  of 
southern  boundary,  14 ;  Harris  line, 
li    Hendricks  line,  14. 

Bow  en    Jerome  ^217 

Bon  en    Jerome  K— 146 

Bow  en    M   S— 218 

Bowen,  Willard  J— 141;  217. 

Bowers   L.  M,— 625. 

Boynton,  Stanley  W.— 458. 

Bradley.  Howard,— 86. 

Brainard,  E.  S.  E.— 87. 


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Branch  county — Subject  of  history,  i;  creat- 
ed and  bounded,  i ;  population,  2 ;  28- 
32;  objects  of  hi5tory  of,  4;  creation 
and  survey  of,  6-15;  Territorial  Act 
creating,  I,  8 ;  topography,  16-20 ; 
drainage,  20-23;  Indians  of,  24-37. 

Branch  Count v  Savings  Bank,— 126. 

Branch,  J.  B.^96;  559. 

Branch  village — History  of,  51-54;  laid  out 
by  Elisha  Warren,  52. 

Bray,  Byron  W.— SOS- 

Brinton,  Albert  N,— 447. 

Bronson,  Jabe.— 3;  first  settler,  41;  103;  108. 

Bronson,  original  name  of  Kalamazoo.— 103. 

Bronson  Prairie. — 41 ;  settlers  in  1830,  42. 

Bronson  township. — 40;  first  settlement,  41; 
population  in  1837,  44;  first  schools, 
151. 

Bronson  viilage,^ — Nucleus  of,  43;  history  of, 
103-106;  manufacturing,  116  et  seq. ; 
schools,  171  et  seq;  library,  181 ; 
churches,   190  et  seq. ;  officials  of,  304. 

Brooks.  Loren  R.— 500. 

Broughton,  John.— 68;  loi. 

Brown,   Alva ra do .—^37. 

Brown,  Asahei.— 87 ;  432. 

Brown,  Elisha  J.— 533. 

Brown,  J.  Wesley. — 434. 

Buell   family — In  Union  township,  80. 

Buell.  Geo.   W.— loi. 

Buell,  Martin  F.— loi ;  486. 

Buell,  Perry  J.— 850. 

Burdick,  Geo.  E.— 179;  586. 

Burdick,  James  M.— 37;  68. 

Burlingame,  Joel  and  Anson. — 53. 

Burnett,  Charles  L.— 766. 

Burnett,  Leander  S. — 548. 

Burrows,  Arthur. — 748. 

Burton,  George  A. — 582. 

Bushnell,  William  B,— 624, 

Business. — Firms  at  Coldwater,  95-97;  at 
Union  City,  100- loi  ;  at  Quincy,  103; 
at  Bronson,   106. 

Butler  township.^40 ;  settlement  of,  76-77; 
pioneers,  77;  officials,  305. 

Cahfomia    township — 39;    settlement   of.   ()0- 

92;   officials  of,  306. 
California  village .^^1-92. 
Calkins  B.  H.  &  Son.  Co.— 117. 
Calkins,  Thomas  N.^r39. 
Campbell,  Hugh. — 54. 
Campbell,  Milo  D. — 56;  219;   386. 
Campbell,  Oliver  C— 212;  844, 
Campbell,  William  J.— 706. 
Canals— At  Union  City,  98  (see  Erie  Canal). 
Carey  Mission. — 25, 
Carpenter,  Charles  F.— 328. 
Carter,  George.— 588, 
Gary,   Samuel   H. — 48. 
Case.  Almeron  W.— -85. 
Cemen (^Manufacturers  of,    120-123. 
Census   Records-— 28-32;    analysis   of   census 


Chain  Lake  Channel  Co, — 22. 

Champion,  Charles  U,— 822. 

Champion,  John  R.— 218;  821. 

Chandler,  Albert.— 94;  96;  140;  184. 

Chanute  Cement  &  Clay  Product  Co.,  Bron- 
son.— 123. 

Chapman,  Charles  W. — 811. 

Chase,  Bishop  Philander.^69  et  seq. ;  site  of 
home,  71;  84;  109;  151. 

Chase,  Enoch. — 222. 

Chase,  H.  H.— 100. 

Chauucey,  M.  E. — 223. 

Cherdavoine,  Robert.— 785. 

Chicago  Road. — 34-36;  129;  early  condition 
of,  42;  in  Coldvtater  tovunsliip,  50;  and 
village  of  Branch,  53 ;  Quincy  town- 
ship, 65. 

Chiesman.  W.  B.— 746. 

Church,   Edwin  B. — 410. 

Churches. — 190-209;    (see  Religion). 

Circuit  Court  Commissioners — List  of,  298- 
299. 

Circuit  Coiirts. — 214. 

Circuit  Judges— List  of,  297. 

Civil  War — Soldiers  from  Branch  comity  in, 
258-296. 

Clark  family— In  Bronson,  106. 

Clark,  Israel  W.— 79. 

Clark,  Leonard  C. — 105. 

Clark,  Leonard  D. — 442. 

Clark,  Oliver  J,— 676. 

Clarke,  Edwin  R. — Store,  95 ;  library,  95,  183, 
735- 

Clawson,  John.^79. 

Clerks— Township,  lists  of,  300-321. 

Clerks—Village,  lists  of,  321-326. 

Cleveland,  Augustus  A.-— 875. 

Cleveland,  George  W. — 496. 

Clizbe,  S.  H.^ — 224. 

Clubs — Woman's,  of  Coldwater,  188;  Twen- 
tieth Century,  gf  Coldwater,  188 ; 
Fortnightly  Musical,  188 ;  New  Cen- 
tury, Quincy,  235 ;  Columbian,  Quincy. 
236;  Nika,  Quincy,  236;  Chautauqua 
Circle,  236;  Woman's,  Bronson,  236; 
Tuesday,  Union  City,  237. 

Coddington,  Frederick  M.— 781. 

Coldwater— History  of,  93-97;  origin  of,  54 
et  seq.;  first  house,  55;  platted  by  Tib- 
bits  and  Hanchett,  55;  Dr.  W.  B. 
Sprague's  History  of,  56;  citizens  of 
183s,  57 ;  incorporated,  57 ;  contests  for 
county  seat,  60  et  seq.;  schools,  151 
et  seq.;  library,  182-184;  churches,  190 
et    seq.;    lawyers,   214-220;    physicians, 


Coldwater  L  ght  G      d  —256. 

Coldwater   N  t      al    B  nk— 125. 

Coldwater    P  —Vily     not    first    settled, 

49;        I        tl         54    109. 
Coldwater  P      land  C  m     t  Co.— 123. 


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Cofdwater  Public   Library.— 182-184. 

Coldwater  River.— 18-19. 

Coldwater  Township.— 39 ;  early  settlement 
and  growth,  49  et  seq. 

Cole,  Archie  W.— S4i- 

Cole,  George  H.— 437- 

Collin,   Henry    P.— 878. 

"Company  A." — 257. 

Compulsory  Education.— 156. 

Conant,   Sarah   E.— 56;   452. 

Congregational  Churches. — 202  et  seq. ;  at 
Union  City,  202;  Algansee,  203;  Gil- 
ead,  204;  Bronson,  204. 

Conklin,   Charles  P.— 456- 

Conklin,   Fred  J— 526. 

Conover,  Charles  A.— 96,  547. 

Conover    Engraving  &    Printing   Co. — 118. 

Conover,  Jefferson  S.— 186,  545. 

Conover,  William  N.— 551. 

Coombs.—Mills  at  Coldwater,  59. 

Coombs,  William  A.— 621. 

Coon  Pen. — Name  of  building  used  for  coun- 
ty and  public   purposes,   62. 

■Copeland,  Arthur  G. — 503. 

Corbin,  Horace  A. — 100. 

Corbus,  Family.— In  Girard,  74. 

Corbus,  James  G. — 36;  65. 

Cornish,  John. — First  settler  of  Quincy  vil- 
lage, 66;  his  tavern.  67. 

Cotnwell,  Charles  T. — 414, 

■Coroners — List  of,  299. 

Corson,  John.— 83. 

Corn-in,  L.  J.— 445- 

County  Clerks— List  of,  297. 

County  Courts.— 214. 

County  School  Commissioners — List  of,  298. 

County  Seat.— First  located,  51;  at  Hason- 
viile,  51;  at  Branch,  52;  history  of 
contest,   54;    60-62. 

County  Treasurers — List  of,  298. 

Courier,  The  Coldwater,— 141. 

Court  House. — First  in  county,  52;  located 
at  Coldwater,  61;  history  of,  62-64; 
names  of  building  co -"--    ■^- 

Courts  and  Lawyers. — 214-: 

'Cox,  Frank  L. — 575. 

Crater,  Andrew.— 88. 

Crater,   Morris.— 88. 

Crippen,  L.  0,-37;  94;  124- 

Crissy,  Hiram.— 838. 

Cross,  Robert  J.— 54. 

Cross,  William  H.— 76. 

Culp,  John  W.— 511, 

Culver,  Abiathar,— 83, 

Culver,  Oliver  E.— 567. 

Cunningham,   Daniel   5,-224 

Cutter,  S.   S,— 222-223, 


Dall.  Benedict,— 599, 
Daniels.   Frank   M,- 
Davis,  Eber  7,-764. 
Davis,  J,  Harlan,— 830, 
Denham,   Horace,— 438. 
Dexter,  Thomas,— 799. 


577- 


Dickey,  James  K, — 711, 

Dickey.   James   R,— 382. 

Dimond.    Isaac    M, — 79. 

Doolittle,   Fred   W,— 330. 

Dorrance,  Albert  A,— 96;  426. 

Dorrance,   A,   J,— -430. 

Doubleday,  Hiram.— -Ss. 

Doubleday,  Harvey  M. — 356. 

Douplas.    Charles    H,— 568. 

Douglas,  Jenny  C— 568. 

Drainage  System, — 20-23;  value  of,  20;  early 
methods,  2o;  officials.  21;  in  different 
townships,  21-23;  in  Butler,  76, 

Draper,   OIney  W.— 678- 

Driggs,  Alfred  L, — 43 ;  builds  sawmill,  43, 

Dry  Prairie,— 8r. 

Dufur,  Ira,— 796, 

Dunkards. — 207. 

Dimks,  F,  J, — 430, 

Dunlap,  John,— 580, 

Dunn,   Polly  A,— 650. 

"Dutch    Settlement."— 89, 

East  Gilead.— 73. 

Easton,  D.  J.— 140;  146;  186, 

Eaton,   Franklin. — 474, 

Eddy,  Mary  A,— 184, 

Education — History       of,       148-174.         (See 

Schools.) 
Eldred,  Joseph  G,— 858, 
Electric   Railroads. — 133, 
Elizabeth  Township. — 40;  changed  to  Bethel, 

40, 
Elting,  Theron,~637, 
Engel,   Eugene, — 837, 
Ensley,    Homer, — 563. 
Ensley,  Jacob. — 5&. 
Erie  Canal.— When  built,   33;   importance  to 

Branch   County   settlement,   33   el  pas- 

Erie  and  Kalamazoo  R.  R, — 129. 
Etheridge,  A.   Munson,— 622, 
Etheridge,    Kirkland    6,-372. 
Evangelical  Lutheran  Churches. — 205. 
Evans,  John  S.— 143;  i44;   186;  86g. 
Evans,  Thomas   P. — 367. 
Ewers,  Dr.  H.  F.— 132. 
Exchange  Bank,   Bronson, — 128. 
Exchange  Bank  of  Crippen  and  Fisk,^i24. 

Factories.     (See  Manufacturing,) 

Farmers'  Institute  Society,  Branch  County. — 

114-115, 
Farmers'  Muiuai  Insurance  Co. — tz8. 
Farmers'  National  Bank  of  Union  City,— 127. 
Farmers'  and  Merchants'  Bank  of  Sherwood, 

—128, 
Farming,     (See  Agriculture.) 
Farrand,  Joseph  P. — 753 
Fellows,  Burt  M.— 804. 
Fenner,  Charles   C, — 406, 
Fenner,  Corydon  M, — 498, 
Fet^uson,  Benjamin  R, — 873, 


yGoogle 


Field  Notes,  Surveyors', — 7;  first  of  Branch 
County,  7-9;  original,  where  kept,  9; 
d^cribed,   10;  copy  of.  II. 

First  National  Bank  of  Quincy,— 127. 

Fisk,  A.  C— 37. 

Fisk,  Clinton  B.— 124, 

Fisk,    Samuel.— S73. 

Flandermeyer,  Herman  H. — 96;  814. 

Follett,   Thaddeus.— 463, 

Foote,  Burnley.— 760. 

Foresters,  Independent  Order  of, — 231. 

Fort  Wayne,  Jackson  and  Saginaw  R.  R. — 
132. 

Foster,  J.  N. — 141. 

Fox,  Aaron  O. — 594. 

Fox,  David,— 7g8. 

Fox,  John  P.— 620. 

Fraser,  Robert. — 461. 

Fraternities  and   Clubs.- 227-237. 

Frederick,    H.    E.— 566. 

Freeman,  Isaac. — 45. 

Free  Methodist  Churches. — 195. 

Free   Public  Library   of  Bronson. — 181, 

Free- Will    or    Free    Baptist    Churches. — 199 

Friedrich,  William   H-,  Co.— 119. 
Fry,  Fred  P.— 425. 
Fuller,  E.  G.— 139;  215. 

Gamble,   E.  F.— 459. 

Gardner,  Amos  M.^524, 

Gardner   Family,   in    Matteson,— 83. 

Gardner,  Samuel. — 361. 

Gas  Light  and  Fuel  Co.,  Coldwater. — 119. 

Gattschalk,   William   H.— 846. 

Gazette,  The  Branch   County.— 140, 

Germans,  hi   Branch   County. — 31. 

Gilbert,  H.  C— 140 

Gilead  Township. — 40 ;  Bishop  Chase  and, 
69;  early  history,  69-73;  population  in 
5837,  73;  first  schools,  151;  officials 
of,  308. 

Gillam,  George  F. — 104. 

Girard  Prairie. — 74, 

Girard  Township, — 39;  early  history,  73-76; 
pioneers  of,  76;  officials  of,  309. 

Globensky  Bros .^120. 

Gloyd,  Cynthia. — 151. 

Goodwin,  Justus. — 79. 

Goodwinsvtlle . — 79, 

Gorman,   Benjamin   B.— 591. 

Graduates.     (See  Alumni.) 

Grand  Army   Posts.— 233-235. 

Grange,  The — History  of,   113-114. 

Granger,   Adeline, — 514. 

Graves,  Henry  A.— 103,  388. 

Gray,  Burr  0,-73, 

Gray,  Charles  W. — 600. 

Gray,  John  H.— 186. 

Gray,  J.  M. — 466 

Gray,   Perry  D.— 521. 

Green,  B.  F. — 647. 

Green,  David  N.^-94;  239. 

Green,  Mrs,  David  N, — 151, 


Greenamyer,  John  A, 
Green  Township.— 38,  39. 
Greenwood,   George,— 368 
Grove,  Elijah,- 337. 
Grove,.  Theron.— 604. 
Grube,   Howard   A.— 660, 
Griiner,  Anton.^ — 847, 
Gruner,  Starr  W.— 53i- 
Gruner,  Ward  C, — 386. 
Gunsaulliis.   Pyrl   H, 


■552- 


■703- 

Hall,    Charles    H.— 832. 

Hall,  Clark  M,— 834.      , 

Hall,  Willis,— 661, 

Hall's  Corners,— 91. 

Halsted.  L,  D.— 37;  56;  239; 

Hamilton,   Charles. — 417, 

Hamman,    Henry.— ^730. 

Hammond   Family,—^, 

Hanchett,   Edward   S,— 75;  76, 

Hanchett    Family,    in 

Hanchett,  Joseph, — 54. 

Hanchett,  William,- 222, 

Hardenbrook,  John. — 444, 

Harris,  Charles  J, — 703, 

Harris   Line,— 13- 

Harvesting  (see  Agricuhurc),— Pioneer  har- 
vesting machinery,  no. 

Hawks,   Joseph  5,-85, 

Hawley,  Hiram  B.— 762. 

Hawley,  WiUard  S,— 487- 

Haynes,  Harvey,— 37-   1S2.   177- 

Hazen,  Earl.— 492, 

Hazen,  E,  F,— 107. 

Ha^enville-- 107. 

Hendricks,  E.  P.,  surveyor  of  southern 
boundary   of   Branch   County,— 14, 

Hendricks'  Line.— 1 4- 

Henry,   Warren,— 196;  480. 

Herald,   Bronson. — 145. 

Herald,   The   Quincy,— 144. 

Hewelt,  J.  B,— 462, 

Hickory   Comers.-^89, 

Highway   Commissioners — Lists    of,   3CO-321, 

Hildebrand,   Frederick,— 454, 

Hildebrand,  Louie  F,— 455, 

Hilton,  Thomas  A,— 96;  610. 

Himebaugh  Family, — in  Noble,  89;  Emanuel, 

212. 

Hodunk.— 76;   78;  80, 

Holbrook,  Arthur  G.— 823, 

Holbrook,   David   L.— 557, 

Holbrook,  Silas  A,— 56;  215, 

HoUenbeck,    Russell    B,— 642. 

Holmes,  Cicero  J.— 853. 

Holmes,  Florence  M.— 184. 

Holmes,  Jonathan  and  Samuel, — 44 ;  build 
grist  mill,  44. 

Holmes,  Thomas.— 43;  70. 

Hotels,  Early,— New  York  House,  46,  47; 
Rose  House,  42;  Taylor  House,  47; 
Batavia  House,  47;  Dudley  Tavern, 
48;  Morse  Tavern,  50;  Eagle  House 
in    Coldwater,  57;    Corbus   House    ii» 


lyGoogle 


Qiiincy,  65;  Cornish's  Hotel,  67;  Berry 
House  in  Qu'iO".  6?;  Judson  House 
in  Bronson,  6g;  Union  City  House, 
79;  "tog  tavern"  in  Sherwood,  81;  in 
California  township,  90;  Quincy,  loi ; 
in  Bronson,  105. 

Houghlaling    Family,    at   Quincy.— 103. 

Hughes,  Edwin  W,— 682. 

Hulse,  John.— *56. 

Humphrey,  Leonard  F.— 523. 

Hungerford,   Virgil  U.— 435. 

Hurd  Family,  at  Union  City,—??, 

Hurd,  Mrs.  C.  E.— 558. 

Hurd,  Theodore  C.  William  P.,  Henry  S  — 
221 ;  William  P.,  223. 


Immigration. — Va 

33-37 ;  influenced  hy  Erie  canal,  33 ; 
sources  of,  36;  beginning  of,  41;  by 
Marshall  road,  75;  to  Butler,  77;  to 
Branch  County  at  present,  112. 

Indians  of  Branch  County.— 24-27 ;  treaties 
with,  25;  villages,  26;  trails  in  Branch 
County,  26;  on  Coldwater  prairie,  49; 
on  Girard  prairie,  74;  Indian  trail  in 
SherwocMl,  81 ;  Indian  trail  in  Mat- 
teson,  82 ;  in  Kinderhook,  84. 

Infirmary,   Branch   County— History  of,   179- 


Jail,   at  Branch. — 52;   destroyed,  61;  jaiis   at 

Coldwater,  61,  62. 
James,  Lemander.— ^50. 
Jardon,   E.  M.— 457- 
Johnson,  Ad i son   P, — 396. 
Johnson  Cooperage  Co.— 119. 
Johnson,  Ezra.- 720. 
Johnson,  Ira  D. — 363. 
Johnson,  John.— 333. 
Johnson,  Jonathan. — 848. 
Johnson,  Leon  A.^ — 168;  831. 
Johnson,   Prosper  C. — 439. 
Johnson,  Roll  in  A.— 346, 
Jones,  Clarence  C. — 428. 
Joseph,  Lucas,— roi. 
Journal,   The    Branch    County.— 140. 
Journal,  The  Bronson.— 145, 
Judd,  Alfonso  C. — 595. 

Kellor,    Frances    A.— 187. 

Kellsy,  Ira.— 583. 

Kelso,  Robert,— 488. 

Kempster,  Stephen  W.— 350. 

Kent.  William  A— 43;  215, 

Kilbourn,  Samuel  L.— 448, 

Kinderhook   Postotfic 6.-85. 

Kinderhook    Township, — 40;     settlement    of. 

84-85;  pioneers,  84;  officials  of,  311. 
King,  Hawkins  A.— 224. 
King,  Seth. — 792. 
Kinter,  George.— 574. 
Kitehel,  Horace.— 380. 
Kitchel,  Simon  3.-143:  186;  218;  -fSo. 
Klock,  Geo.  W.— 188. 


Knapp,  Frank  E. — 165 ;  470. 
Knapp,   Thomas    C. — 756. 
Knapp,    Wells. — 106. 
Knauss,   Henry  D. — 735. 
Knauss,    Samuel.— 651. 
Knecht,   John,— 482. 
Knights  o(  rytnias. — 232. 
Knights  and  Ladies  of  the  Maccabees 
229;  230;  231;  232:  233. 


130 
Lakes  ot  Brmch  County.— 16;   outlets,   18. 
Larapman    Ambrose.— 856. 
Lanipnnn    Henry  S.— 77. 
Lampson    Bon  z.— 85. 
Lancaster    Columbia.— 151 ;  215. 
La  rz  el  ere    Diniel.— 747. 
Lawrence    James  H.— 90. 
Lawyer    Justm. — 214,  216. 
Lawyeri    of    Branth    County. — 215-220;    roH 

of  m  1875,  216;  in  1895,  219;  in   1906, 

Leek  er    Wesley.— 484. 

Legg   Charles  N.— 218;  history  of  Coldwater 

schools    151,  157;  804. 
Leonard    D    P.— 779. 
Levis  Art   Gallery.— 184 ;   188. 
Lewis    Ed  E— 842.      , 
Lewis    Henrv   C. — 451, 
Libraries. — 181-184. 
Lime  Lake,— 120. 

Lincoln   Family,   in   Union   lownihip, — 80. 
Literature — Activity  in,  184, 
Littlefield,  Darwin. — 222. 
Locke,  A.  LeRoy.— 56!;. 
Lockerby,   William   H^— 667. 
Lockwood,   Edward   C, — 418. 
Loekwood,  George. — 77. 
Lockwood  Family,  in   Ovid. — 86, 
Lockwood,    Herbert    B,— 612. 
Long,  James  M.— 223. 
Loomis    Battery.— 284-286. 
Loring,  Mrs.  George  E.— 783. 
Lover idge,  H.  C— 820. 
Loveridge,  Noah  P.— 217;  818. 
Lowry,  Jefferson. — 833. 
Lowry,  William   T.— 584. 
Luce,   Cyrus   G. — 212,   327. 
Lyons.— First  name  of  Coldwater,  55. 
Lytle,  A.  L.— 103. 

Mack,  Thomas  W.— 395. 

Mack,   Truman    C. — 452. 

Mallow  Family,  in  Noble.— 89. 

Mallow,  George  W. — 732. 

Mallow,  William.— 336. 

Mann,  Jacob  W.— 741. 

Mann,  Mark  H.— 672. 

Mansell.  George. — 96;  Edwin,  97. 

Mansfield.    Coldwater    and     Lake    Michigan 

R.   R,-i33, 
Mansfield.    Pizarro,— 855, 


yGoogle 


Man u fact uring.^Un ion  City  Iron  Co.,  98 ; 
in  Branch  County,  116-123;  Cement  in- 
dustry, 120-123. 

Marl.— 120. 

Marqiiart,   William.— 4?8. 

Marsh  Family. — 45. 

Marsh,  Francis  E, — 103 ;  224. 

Marsh,  Franklin   D.— 94. 

Marsh,  Lansing  C. — 224. 

Marsh,  Loren, — 26. 

Marshall  and  Coldwatcr  R.  R,— 133, 

Marshall   Road.— ?5, 

Martin,  George.-— S9S. 

Martin,   Ira   A.— 556, 

Martin,  John  G.— 597- 

Martin,   Peter,— 56;  his  sawmill,  58. 

Masonic    OrKanizations. — 227-228;    229;    230. 

Masonville — History  of,  51. 

Matfeson,    Amos. — 83. 

Matteson  Township, — 40;  settlement  of,  82- 
84;  pioneers  of,  84;  officials  of,  312. 

McCarger,  A.  T.— 147. 

McCarty,  William. — 56;  his  house  the  oldest 
in  Coldwater,  56. 

McCausey,  Joseph  W.— 371. 

McCrary,  Alexander  0,-643. 

McCrary,   Clay. — 649. 

McCrary,  Mrs.    Alexander    C. — 646, 

McCrary,  Roy.— 648. 

McGowan,  Jonas  H, — 140;   186;  217;  212. 

McKende  Cereal  Food  and  Milling  Co. — 
120. 

Mclntyre,   Alexander, — 616. 

Mclntyre,  John  F. — 716. 

McLane,   John   H. — 701. 

McLean,   Hector. — 419, 

McNall,  Irving. — 867. 

Mc Murray,  Hu^h.— 519. 

Medical  Profession— History  of,  221-226. 

Medical    Society.   The   Branch   County, — 226. 

Mennonites. — 89;  206. 

Meridian,  for  survey  of  Branch   County, — 8, 

Merrifield,  Marc  A,— 218,  635. 

Merrill,  Js, — 632, 

Methodist  Episcopal  Churches. — 190  et  seq. ; 
at  Coldwater,  190;  Quincy,  191;  Bron- 
son,  192;  Sherwood,  193;  Girard,  193; 
Union   City,   194;   other  churches,   194, 

Michigan   State  Telephone  Co, — 135. 

Military  History. — 256-296. 

Miller,  Harvey  D.— 769. 

Miller,  Joseph. — 494, 

Miller,  Willis  A, — 752. 

Mills, — Adams'  sawmill,  43 ;  Driggs',  43 ; 
Holmes'  grist  mill,  44;  Woodard  mill, 
47;  Black  Hawk,  51,  53;  first  at  Cold- 
water,  58;  Coombs'  mills,  59;  Bishop 
Chase  at  Adams'  mills,  69;  Gilead 
mill,  71;  first  in  Girard,  75;  Hodunk, 
76,  80;  Union  City,  79;  Crater's  in 
Algansee,  88;  Wakeman's  in  Algansee, 
88;  in  California,  92;  at  Coldwater, 
93;  Quincy,  102,  (See  Manufactur- 
ing,) 


Milnes,  Alfred.— 212;  681, 
Milnes  Supply  Company.— 96, 
Mintling,  James   B,— 666. 
Mockridge,  Robert  F. — 94- 
Modern   Woodmen.^ — 232. 
Monlux,   George, — 91, 
Monroe,  George.- 727, 
Montague,  J,  H.— 717, 
Moore,  Bradley  O. — 1538, 
Moore,  W.  G,— 141;  186, 
Morgan,  F.  E,— 218, 
Morrill.  Oliver,— 426. 
Morrison,  Paschal  P.— 778, 
Morse,  John.— 50;  54. 
Moseley,   Augustus   C, — 728. 
Mosher,    J.    D.— 765, 
Mowry,  Henry  P.— 224;  671. 
Music, — Activity  in,  184. 
Mystic  Workers  of  the  Worid.- 


-230, 


Nationalities   in  Branch    County,— 31. 

Neal,  John   N.— 813, 

Nesbitt,   John    S,— 354. 

Nettleton,  V,  L,  and  Company, — 96, 

Newberry,  Frank  D.— ^5.38. 

Newberry,  Mrs.  Fannie  £.—187;  540, 

Newberry,   Peter  M.— 37. 

Newell,   Charles   H.— 141 ;  483, 

Newman,   Stephen.— 592, 

News,   The  Quincy.- 145. 

Newspapers — History  of,  in  Branch   County, 

138-147. 
New  York  House,— 41. 
NichoUs,  An  set  I. —37. 
Nichols,  P.  P.— 140;  141;   186. 
Noble   Township, — 40;    seltiemcnt   of,  Hg-go; 

officials   of,  313, 
Northwest    Territory, — Ordinance     of      1787 

for  government  of,   12, 
Norton,  William   P,— 506. 
Noyes,  Orlando  G, — 560. 

Observer,  The  Coldwater,— 139, 

Odd  Fellows  Organization,— 228 ;  232, 

Odren,  Alex.— 91. 

Officials   of   Branch   County   and   Townships 

and  Villages.— 297-326. 
Ogden,  James   S, — 403, 
Ohio, — Boundaries,   source  of  trouble,   13, 
Olds,  Clarence  L.— 689. 
Olds,  Fred,— 422. 
Olds,  Martin.— 47;  36. 
Olmstead,   Benjamin,— 48. 
Olmstead,  Moses,— 45, 
OIney,  Henry,— 786. 
O  range  vi  lie.— 80. 

Order  of  Eastern  Star, — 231 ;  233, 
Ordinance  of  1787, — quoted,  12. 
Ordinance   Line,— 12,   13. 
Osborn,  Zelotes  G.— 211 ;  802. 
OutWaler,  John   £,—663, 
Ovid    Township,— 39 ;    settlement    of,    85-87; 

officials   of,  314, 
Owen.  Charles  W,— 141,  144,  145,  186,  774. 


i,Google 


Palm 


,  Elm 


,   710. 


Paradine,  Mrs,  E,  R.   G,— 460. 

Parker,  Marcellus  H,— 64,  i8g,  413. 

Parker,  Richmond  F,— 722. 

Parkhtirst,  John  G,— 218;  212;  339. 

Parks,  John  D.— 854. 

Parley's   Corners.— 87. 

Parrish,  Kimhle.— 499- 

Parsons,  Alfred.— 344- 

Patrons  of  Husbandry  (see  Grange). 

Paul,  James  B.— 508.      • 

Paul,  Wilson  S.— 697. 

Pearce,  Edwin  K.— 585. 

Peerless  Portland   Cement   Co,— 121. 

Phillips,  John  F.— 393- 

Physici an s.— 221-226 ;  list  of,  225. 

Piatt,  Nathaniel.— 684. 

Pierce,  Charles.— 860, 

Pierce,  Oren  L— 563. 

Pierson,   Clara    D.— 187. 

Pioneer   Society— History   of,  238-239. 

Pioneers,  Alphabetical  Record.— 239-255, 

Pitcher,  David.— 871. 

Pixley,  Augustus.— I  OS. 

Polish  People  of  Branch  County,— ^20,  32, 
105- 

Political  History  of  Branch  County,— 210- 
213;  see  sketch  of  Isaac  Bennett, 

Pollock,  Samuel. — 820. 

Pomona   Grange,— 114. 

Pond,  C.  V,  R,— 144,  186. 

Pond.  Elihu  B.— 140,  186. 

Pond,  ^ared. — 210, 

Population, — In  Branch  County,  increase  and 
distribution  of,  28-32;  influence  of 
Black  Hawk  war  on,  29 ;  nationalities. 
31;  sources  of,  36;  attracted  to  Girard 
prairie,  74;   of  Bronson  village,   105. 

Porter,  Philo.— 48. 

Postal  Service.— 134   (see  Postoffices). 
Postoffices, — Bronson,  42;   Prairie  River,  43; 
Quincy,   67;    Goodwinsville,    79;    Mat- 
teson,    83;    Kinderhook,    85;    Parley's 
Comers,    87;    Algansee,    88;    Hickory 
Comers,   89;   Union   City,    100;   Rural 
Delivery,  114;   134-135. 
Pofawatomi   Indians, — 24;    treaties   with,  25; 
villages,  26;  on  Coldwater  prairie,  49; 
on  Girard  prairie,  74,      (See  Indians,) 
Powers,   D.    C. — 223. 
Powers,  Randall  D.  and  Charles, — ro6, 
Prairie  River  Township. — 39,   40, 
Pratt  Manufacturing  Co.— 118. 
Presbyterian    Churches,- 200   ef    seg,;    Cold- 
water,   200;    Quincy,    201;    California, 

Presidents.— Village,  lists  of,  321-326. 
Pridgeon,  John,  Jr. — 362. 
Primary   School  Fund,— 148. 
Probate  Judges— List  of,  297. 
Prosecuting  Attorneys— List  of,  297. 
Protestant  Episcopal  Churches— 207-208, 
Purdy,   Fred, — 772. 
Purdy,    Horace. — 87. 


i^r^  xiir 

Quick.  Edmund  W,— 408, 

Quincy  Independent  Telephone  Co— n6 

Quincy  State  Bank.— 127, 

Qmncy   Township,— 39 ;   early   settlement,   65 

et   seq,;   first   officers,  68;   officials   of, 

316, 
Qumcy    Village,— 66;     history    of,     101-103  r 

manufacturing,    117    et    seq,;    library 

182;    .schools,    164    et    seq.;    churches' 

190-209. 

Railroads.— In  the  thirties,  34,  93,  98;  under 
.around,  99;  history  of  railroads  in- 
Branch  County.   120-111 

Randall,  Caleb  D.— 176,  316 

Randall,  Dr.  AJvah._22i 

Randall,  Seth  8,-654 

Ransford,  Edward  6—825 

Ransom,  Alvarado  B,— ■128 

Rate   Bill,-i32,    ,58 

Rathhurn,   Charles   D-^7 

Rathbum,  P.  J,-836, 

Regal  Gasoline  Engine  Co,— n8 

Regiments  of  Branch  County  Soldiers  (see- 
under  Soldiers).  ' 

Register,  The   Sherwood,— 146 

Register.   The  Union   City,— 146 

Registers  of  Deeds— List  of,  298 

Religion  and  Churches— 190-209 ;  Bishop 
Chase  at  Adams'  Mills.  70;  Mennon- 

ioI/y.^S'^C^^  V'"^'"^^'^ 
Reporter,  The.— 142 
Republican,  The,— 140, 
Republican.  The  Branch  County,-uo 
Reynolds  Family,   in  Batavia  Township,-47 
Reynolds,  Frank   6,-619. 
Reynolds,   Norman   A,— 617 
Rheubottom,   F,    C— 100 
Rice,  Samuel  W.— 353. 
Richey,  James.— 400. 
Roads,--Oyerland,  33  et  seq;  Chicago  road 

<s«e>;34.  41;  Indian  road  into  Gilead 

72;_Marshall  road,  75;  state  road,  78; 

tentorial     road     in      Sherwood,     8i ; 
Kalamazoo   trail,"   82;    state   road   iir 

Matteson. 
Robinson,   Arthur   E— 658, 
Robinson,  T,  F.— 146 
Rohinson,  W.  L,— 146. 
Roman  Catholic  Churches.— 207 
Ronan,   Michael,— 659. 
Root.  Edward  R,— 123,  863 
Root,  Roland.— 51,  So,  211, 
Rose  House,   in   Bronson.— 42 
Rose,   L.    A,— 104,    los- 
Rossraan    Family,   in   Bufler— 77 
Royal  Arcanum,— ^231. 
Rndd,  L,  and  Son,  Bank,— 128 
Runyan,  Henry, — 699. 
Rural   Free  Delivery.— 1 14,   i-u-iii; 
Russell,  George  A,-S6s.  ^^' 

Sager,  Charles  H,— 390. 


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XIV 


Salisbury,    Joseph    N.— 549- 

Salsberry  Family,  in   Ovid.— 86. 

Sanders,  Abishi.— 72. 

Sanders,  Levi. — 877. 

Sanford,    George   R. — ?39. 

Saunders,  H.  R.— 700. 

Sawdey,  R.  C.  and  W.  S.— 96- 

Schaffmaster,   Christopher. — 377. 

Scheidler,  L.  F.— 755- 

Schools  (see  Education)  .—First  in  Batavia, 
48;  at  Branch,  52;  in  Quincy  town- 
ship, 6g;  in  Algansee,  88;  in  Caf,- 
fornia,  ca;  character  of  early  schools, 
148  et  seq.;  early  schools  in;  Bron- 
son,  151;  Gilead,  151;  Coldwater,  151  et 
seq.;  "rate  bill,"  152;  Union  schools, 
153;  administrative  officers,  153;  con- 
solidation of  districts,  155;  Coldwater 
city  schools,  157-164:  Quincy  Schools, 
164;  Union  City  schools,  167;  Bron- 
son  schools,  171 ;  Sherwood  schools, 
T73. 

School   Books   in   Early  Use.— 150, 

School  Reports,— From  various  townships, 
154;  from  Bronson,  172. 

School   Taxes.^ — 153. 

Schultz,   Samuel.— 803. 

Sears,  Clark  C.-747g. 

Sears,   Charles   8.-665. 

Sebring,  John.— 628. 

Secor,  John.— 874. 

Seely,   Southerland  M.— 405- 

Segur,  M.  S.— 103. 

Sentinel,  The  Coldwater.— 138 ;  139  et  passim. 

Settlement  and  Beginnings.— 41  et  seq.;  in- 
fluence of  Chicago  road,  34,  49-59,  65- 


?7- 


3-g2. 


Seymour,  George  H.— 550. 

Seymour,  Henry.— 826. 

Shaffmaster,   A.   D.— 146,    187. 

Shaw,  William  E.— 744. 

Shedd,  Louisa. — 851. 

Shepard,    Albert.— 493. 

Sherer,  Samuel, — 442. 

Sherer,  William.— 442- 

Sheriffs—List  of,  298. 

Sherman,  Albert   A.— 812. 

Sherwood  Heading  Co, — 119, 

Sherwood  Township. — 39;   settlement  of,  81- 

82;  pioneers  of,  81;  officials  of.  317. 
Sherwood  Village.- History  of,  107;  schools, 

173  et  seq. ;  churches,  190  et  seq. 
Shipman,  J.  B.— 2X8,  211. 
Shook,   Jacob.— 77,   214, 
S hook's'  Prairie. — 76. 
Shoudler,  Hiram. — 211. 
Silo  Tanks. — 112. 
Simmons,  Reuben  M. — 806. 
SI  Oman,  Louis. —530. 
Skeels,  F.  L.— 186,  218. 
Smead,  Daniel. — 46. 
Smith,  Abram  I,. — 693. 
Smith,  Benjamin  H.— 75. 
Smith,   F.  v.— 94,   186, 


Smith,  George  K.— 223. 

Smith,  Marshall  F.— 415. 

Smith,  Orin  L.— 578. 

Smith,   Sarah   A.— 343. 

Snider,  William  W.— 738. 

Snow  Prairie. — settled,  45. 

Soldiers,  Roster  of.— 1st  Mich.  Inf.,  258- 
260;  7th  Mich.  Inf.,  261-262;  9th  Mich. 
Inf.,  262-264;  nth  Mich.  Inf.,  264-269; 
■  rsth  Mich,  Inf.,  269-270;  16th  Mich. 
Inf.,  270-271;  17th  Mich.  Inf.,  271-272; 
igth  Mich.  Inf.,  272-275;  28th  Mich, 
Inf..  275-276;  1st  Mich.  Sharpshooters, 
276-277;  4th  Mich.  Cav.,  277-279;  5th 
Mich.  Cav.,  279-280;  8th  Mich.  Cav., 
280-282;  9th  Mich.  Cav.,  282-283;  nth 
Mich,  Cav.,  283-284;  Battery  A„  284- 
286;  Battery  D,  286-288;  Battery  F, 
289-290;  Battery  G,  290-291.  Other 
regiments,  292-296. 

Sorter,  Delivan.— 391. 

Sorter,  William  C. — 420. 

Southern   Michigan  National   Bank. — ^125. 

Southworth,   Floyd    E. — 841. 

Spanish- American  War. — Branch  County's 
record  in,  256-258. 

Spore,    Clarence    B. — 518. 

Sprague,  W.  B.— 37;  history  of  Coldwater. 
56,   210. 

Sprout,   DeWitt   C— 468. 

Stafford,  Charles  W.— 724. 

Staley,   Frederick. — 630. 

Stanton,  Edward  D.— 823. 

Stanton,  John   A.— 558. 

Stanton,  William  A.^365. 

Star,  The.— 143. 

Star,   The  Michigan.— 139. 

Starr,    George.— 707. 

State  Roads.— 36.     (See  Roads,) 

State   Public  School — History  of,   175-180, 

Stearns,   George  W, — 675. 

Stepper,  John  G,— 338- 

Stewart,  Frederick  W,— 573. 

Stiles,  Luther,— 88, 

Stillman,  H,  B.— 140,  222, 

St,  Joseph  River.— 19,  78. 

St.    Mary's    Parish.— 462. 

Stokes,  Mary  A.— 351. 

Straight,  Henrv  E,^220,  731. 

Stray,  George  J,~788, 

Stuart,   James   B.— 51. 

Studley,   Jerome   J. — 107. 

Styles,  George.— 218. 

Sun.  The.— 143. 

Sunday  School  Association,  Branch  County. 
—209, 

Supervisors — Lists  of,  300-321, 

Survey  of  County.— 6-15;  value  of,  6;  "rec- 
tangular system,"  6;  meridian  and  base 
line,  6;  "Field  Notes,"  7;  beginning 
of,  7;   survey  of  Chicago  road,  36. 

Surveyors,  County— List  of,  9;  299, 

Swain,  Charles  E, — 440. 

Swain,   Frank-,— 518, 


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Swain,  James.-iS3.   156,   m.   5I3. 

Tappan,  F""'*^  T.— Hoi. 

Taylor,  Leonard.— 507- 

Telegraph.-First  in  county,   130. 

Telephones.-History  o£,  13M36. 

Thatcher,  Reuben  J.— S73- 

Thompson,    David.— 217. 

Thompson.  Roy.— 607. 

Thorpe,  Calvin  J.-I43.  144,  1S6   187,  211- 

Tibbits,  Alkn.-54;  settles  m  Coldwater,  55; 

zeal  in  promoting  village.   57- 
Tibhits  Opera  House.— 95- 
Tift,  David.— 87- 
Times,  The  Quincy.— 145- 
Toledo  War.— 13- 
Tomlinson,  Alex  E.-Si. 
Tompkins,  Charles  A.— 309- 
Tompkins,  Francis  J-— 55,  839. 
Tompkins,  James  B.-75.  76- 
Tompkins,   James  T.--679- 
Tompkins,  William  A.— 743.  ^      .„ 

"  Toole,  John.— Pioneer  teacher  and  mill  pro- 
prietor,  51    (see  Bronson). 
Topography    of   Branch    County.— 16-20. 

Tower,  Isaac— 384. 

Tower,  Willis  H.— 385. 

Townships.— Four  fractional,  when  surveyed, 
14;  drainage.  21-23;  formation  of,  38- 
41;  government  and  civil.  38;  Green, 
38;  Coldwater,  39;,  Prairie  River,  39 
(see  under  township  names). 

Township  Officers — Lists  of,- 300-321- 

Trails,   Indian.— 35    (see   Indians). 

Transportation.— By  St.  Joseph  river,  78  (see 
Chicago  road)  ;  history  of,  in  Branch 
County,  129-137. 

Treasurers.- Township,    lists   of,   300-321. 

Treasurers.— Village,  lists  of,   321-326. 

Treat,   Samuel   I.— 423- 

Treat,  Samuel  M.— 86. 

Tripp,  David.— 434. 

Tripp,  George.--85. 

Truesdell,  C.  L.— 103. 

Tucker,  Chester  S.— 223. 

Turner,  G.   H.— 141 ;   ISS.  .__ 

Turner,  John  W.— 217,  211. 

Turner,  Nathaniel.— 83. 

Turner,  Sarah  M. — 709. 

Turner,  Samuel  R. — 596. 

Turner,  Thomas  J.— 865. 

Tuttle,   George  A.— 460. 

Twadell.  Rodney  K.— 685. 

Tyler,  Alphonso.— 446. 

Tyler,  William  M.— 359. 

Underground  Railroad. — 99. 
Union  City.— 78;  platted,  79;  history,  98-11:-  ■ 
manufacturing,    117    et    seq. ;    schools, 
.   167  et  seq. ;  library,  181 ;  churches,  190 

Union   City   National   Bank.^126. 
Union  Schools — Origin  of,  153;  172, 


Union   Township.— 39;   settlement  of.   78-81; 

pioneers  of,  80;  officials  of.  318. 
Unitarian   Churches. — 206. 
United  Brethren  Churches.- 205. 
Upson,   Alonzo   S. — 125,   35°. 
Upson,  Charles.— 214,   216,   21?,  348- 

Van   Aken,   George  W. — 114,  712- 

Van  Aken,  M.  J.— 8i5. 

Van  Blarcum  Family. — 75. 

Van  Every,  Chauneey  M.— 358. 

Van   Nuys,   J.   H.— 544. 

Van   Schoick,   Rev.   R.   W-— 187. 

Van   Slvck,   William,— 810. 

Villages    of   Branch    County.— 98-107. 

Vosburgh,  Mortimer. — 849. 

Waggot,  D.  D,— 14s. 

Walter,    William,— 564. 

Wanar,   William,— ^52. 

Warner,   C.   D.— 615. 

Warner,  E.  A,— 216. 

Warner,  Harvey.— At  Village  of  Branch,  52, 

53- 
Warren,   Elisha.— Plats   Branch   Village,   52; 

sketch,  S3. 
Warren's  Military  Band.— 106. 
Wars.— Branch  County  in  the  country's,  256- 

Warsabo,  L.  A.— 224,  490, 

Waterhouse  Corners. — 85. 

Waterhouse,   John.— 85. 

Waterman,  David  and  Alonzo.- 42- 

Waters,  Samuel. — 409. 

Waterworks. — In    Coldwater.    94;    in    Union 

City,  100;   Quincy,  102. 
Watkins,   Ed«ard   M.— 542. 
Watkins,  Ed  W.— 663. 
Watson,  Frank  J.— 634. 
Watson,  Joseph ,^106. 
Watson,  Robert,— 83,  627. 
Wattles.  George  C— S37. 
Wesleyan  Methodist  Church  at  Coldwater,- 

West,  Charles  P.— 139,  185. 
West,  Laura.— 186. 
White,  Dana  P.— 75o. 
White,   Geo.   M.— 817. 
Whitehead.   Henry   V.— 870. 
Whitley,   Henry   C— 755. 
Whitney,  Willard,— 609. 
Wilber,    Havens,— 570. 
Wilcox,  Edward  P-— 555. 
Wilcox,   Loring   P. — 704. 
Wilkins,  John  H.— 758- 
Willbur,   P,  D.-614. 
Williams,  C.  Ross.— 510. 
Williams,   E.   H.— 485. 
Williams,   Frank   N.— 397- 
Williams,  Harlow  W.— 468. 
Williams,  Mary  M.— 794. 
Williams,  Sheldon.— 85. 
Willis.  Geoi^e  £,—670. 
Willis,   William.— 602. 


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Willson,  Horris.^Qiiincv  pionee 
Wilson,  L.  T.  N.— 2i6. 
Wilson,  Reuben  and  Daniel. — S 
Wilson,  William. — 224 ;  623. 
Wing,   Lucius  M.— 740. 
Withinston,  Myron  J.— ?i8. 
E  Telephone  Co.— 136. 


Wolver 


Woman's  Christian  Temper 
Woman's  Relief  Corps. — Union 
Women's  Clubs   (see  Clubs). 
Wood,  David  H.-7-6gi. 
WoodcoK,   Cornelius   H. — 224. 
Woodward,  Horace  J. — 669. 
Wooley,    Celia    Parker.— 187. 


Wright,  C,  D.— 218. 

Yeatter,  Sydney  E.— 789. 
York    Village,— Original    natir 

40,  42, 
Young,  Charles  H.— 145.  6g2. 
Young,  D.  W,— 103, 
Young,  Hiram, — 608, 
Young  Men's  Christian    ' 
Young,  William  F.— 475. 
Youngs,  Dwight  E.— 861. 


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The  location  and  numbtr  of  every  achoolhouse  in  the  county  ia  indicated  by  a  aquare  and  a  heavy-faced  numeral. 

The  oatne,  of  varion,  -en.,.-  a.d  focm.r  ,o.,offic..  a„  <iv..  .v..  thc^h  no  c.nt.r  now  .xiat.  there. 

Pain,  have  been  take,  to  ,c,,e-.t  evc„  bi(h.ay  a.  found  in  the  couaty  "  the  d.t.  of  p.blication.      :  b,  ^^lOLH^  IL 


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History  op  Branch  County. 


THE  COUNTY  AS  A  SUBJECT  OF  HISTORY. 

"All  parti-colored  threads  the  weaver  Time 
Sets  ill  his  web,  now  trivial,  now  sublime, 
Ail   memories,   all  forebodings,   hopes  and   fears, 
Mountain  and  river,  forest,  prairie,  sea, 
A  hill,  a  rock,  a  homestead,  field,  or  tree. 
The   casual   gleanings   of   unreckoned  years. 
Take  goddess-shape  at  last  and  there  is  She." 

— /ajiir.(  Russi-ll  LoivclL 

Branch  County,  Michigan,  is  a  name  having  two  distinct  though  closely 
cfinnected  meanings.  It  denotes  a  certain  definite  ixjrtion  of  the  earth's  sur- 
face, and  also  the  people  inhabiting  that  portion.  This  definite  area  is  a 
))art  of  the  territory  of  the  "The  State  of  Michigan,"  and  is  thereby  also  a 
part  of  the  domain  of  that  great  body  politic  known  as  "  Tlie  United  States 
of  .Xmerica."  In  its  designation  of  the  people  inhabiting  this  area,  the  name 
Branch  county  .signifies  that  they  are  themselves  an  organized,  pohtical  "  body 
ci»q)orate,"  with  a  certain  distinct  life  of  their  own,  and  that  at  the  same 
time  they  are  a  part  of  "  The  People  of  the  State  of  Michigan,"  and  also  of 
ihat  great  republic  of  united  states  of  which  the  State  of  Michigan  is  one. 

Jn  this  volume  the  writers  and  publishers  of  it  have  undertaken  to  pre- 
sent in  printed  form  a  history  of  Branch  County.  Michigan,  as  thus  defined. 
"Jliese  sentences  are  being  written  in  the  year  1905  A.  D.,  or  in  the  fifth 
year  of  the  twentieth  century  of  the  Christian  era.  We  proiwse  to  look 
at  the  life  the  people  of  this  county  have  lived  upon  their  land  in  the  light 
of  the  knowledge  and  thought  of  this  Twentieth  Christian  Century.  We 
shall  attempt  to  comiMse  their  history,  as  nearly  as  we  may,  in  accordance 
witli  the  principles  and  methods  with  which  the  Twentieth  Century  historian's 
art  portrays  humanity's  past. 

The  area  now  definitely  known  as  Branch  county  was  made  definite,  was 
made  into  a  county,  and  the  name  of  "  Branch  "  was  given  to  it,  by  the  Legis- 
lative Council  and  Governor  of  the  Territory  of  Michigan,  on  the  29th 
of  October,  1829.  The  part  of  the  act  by  which  this  was  done  reads  thus : 
"  That  so  much  of  tlie  country  as  lies  west  of  the  line  between  ranges  four 
and  five,  west  of  the  meridian,  and  east  of  the  line  between  ranges  eight 
and  nine  west,  and  south  of  the  line  Ijetween  townships  four  and  five,  south 


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2  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

of  the  base  line,  and  north  of  the  boundary-hne  between  this  Territory  and 
the  State  of  Indiana,  be  and  the  same  is  hereby  set  off  into  a  separate  county, 
and  the  name  thereof  shall  be  Branch."  As  thus  created,  defined,  and 
nained,  this  area  has  remained  without  change  in  its  boundaries  from  the 
above  date  to  the  present,  and  has  been  recognized  as  Branch  County  by  all 
the  people  and  powers  that  be  that  have  had  anything  to  do  with  it.  It  has 
thus  had  a  continuous  existence  for  seventy-six  years.  It  is  true,  as  will 
be  noted  more  particularly  in  later  pages,  that  in  the  full  political  sense  of 
the  term  "  county  "  the  people  residing  on  the  area  so  named  did  not  become 
a  complete,  organized,  separate  county  imtJi  March  i,  1833,  or  until  nearly 
four  years  after  the  area  had  been  made  such  geographically. 

The  second  and  more  important  part  of  what  the  word  "  county  "  denotes 
in  American  speech  and  literature,  is  the  people  inhabiting  its  area  as 
organized  into  a  civil  social  body  or  body  politic.  The  census  taken  by  the 
State  of  Michigan  in  1904,  one  year  ago,  gave  the  population  of  Branch 
County  as  26,397.  The  separate  enumeration  of  the  people  of  Branch 
Coimty  as  such  was  made  in  the  first  state  census  in  1837.  At  least  this  is 
the  first  such  enumeration  of  which  the  records  are  known  by  the  officials  of 
the  county  and  state  to  be  in  existence.  That  census  of  1837  made  known 
the  fact  that  Branch  County  as  a  distinct  body  poHtic  consisted  of  4,016 
persons.  Ouring  the  68  years  from  1837  to  1905,  that  body  of  4,016  men, 
women  and  children  became  26,397. 

The  subject  before  us,  both  as  writers  and  readers,  is  Branch  County  in 
the  twofold  meaning  of  the  name  as  thus  described.  In  writing  its  historj', 
its  people  and  their  life  will  be  the  continuous  and  chief  object  of  our 
attention.  We  accept  the  generally  recognized  truth,  that  the  life  of  people  ■ 
is  largely  determined  by  the  land  upon  which  they  live,  by  climate  and  the 
other  various  factors  of  nature's  environment.  But  the  central  object  of 
our  conteniplation  will  be  first,  those  4,016  men,  women  and  children  who 
were  living  the  county's  life  in  1837,  and  then  those  who  inherited  it  and 
further  developed  it  through  the  decades  and  geiierations  following.  To 
portray  what  this  life  has  been  in  its  manifold  forms,  to  indicate  the  causes 
of  it,  to  trace  the  generative  and  formative  forces  at  work  in  it,  and  to  show 
some  of  the  facts  and  truths  that  wilt  help  the  26,000  people  of  the  county 
today  in  their  efforts  for  even  greater  prosperity  and  welfare  in  the  years 
before  them,  this  is  the  task  we  liave  undertaken.  Among  the  matters  thus 
to  be  written  of  in  this  history  are  these:  the  physical,  mental,  moral  and 
religious  character  of  those  who  l">egan  the  communities  of  Coldwater,  Quincy, 
Union  City  and  Bronson  and  of  those  who  formed  the  sixteen  organized  town- 
ships of  the  county;  their  nationality,  whether  born  in  the  United  States 
or  in  some  foreign  country;  from  what  other  portions  of  the  United  States 
those  who  have  moved  into  the  county  have  come,  and  thus  what  ideas 
and  customs  they  have  brought  with  them  and  made  a  part  of  the  county's 
life;  the  industries  in  which  the  people  have  engaged,  the -wealth  that  has  been 
accumulated,  the  kind  of  dwellings  the  inhabitants  have  built  for  themselves, 
and  the  domestic  conveniences  they  have  had  in  them;  the  general  conditions 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  3 

as  to  health  aiKl  sanitary  care;  the  means  of  intercourse  and  transirartation, 
that  is,  roads,  highways,  railroad?,  vehicles,  bicycles  and  automobiles,  tele- 
graphs and  telephones;  the  kinds  of  persons  who  have  been  the  teachers, 
clergymen,  physicians  and  lawyers  of  the  county;  the  institutions  and  social 
agencies  through  which  education,  intelligence,  culture,  music,  painting, 
morality,  public  spirit  and  religion  have  been  promoted,  that  is,  schools, 
newsi>apers,  fraternal,  philanthropic  and  political  societies,  theaters  and  opera 
houses,  churches  and  Sunday  schools ;  the  divisions  of  the  people  among  the 
great  political  parties  of  the  nation,  party  politics  in  the  county,  and  the 
administration  of  the  various  offices  of  the  county,  of  its  one  city,  and  its 
several  villages  and  townships.  The  life  of  the  county  in  these  various  forms 
has  embodied  itself  more  largely  in  some  individual  men  and  women  than 
in  others.  Accordingly,  it  is  part  of  the  plan  of  this  work  to  give  large  space 
to  the  biographies  and  portraits  of  persons  in  whom  the  life  of  the  county 
has  more  largely  and  influentially  expressed  itself.  We  shall  strive  to  make 
our  record  as  complete  as  space  will  permit.  Absolute  freedom  from  error 
will  he  impossible,  but  we  shall  take  gi'eat  care  to  make  the  history  and  bio- 
graphical sketches  accurate  in  statement  and  truthful  to  life  as  it  has  been 
lived  by  individual  men  and  women  and  by  the  people  of  the  county  as  a 
whole. 

The  white  inhabitants  of  Branch  coimty's  area,  besides  thus  living  their 
own  life  within  it  among  themselves,  have  also  lived  a  life  in  mutual  rela- 
tions with  the  rest  of  mankind.  They  have  been  a  part  of  larger  wholes. 
They  have  put  elements  into  the  larger  life  of  these  larger  wholes,  and  have 
received  elements  from  them  into  its  own  life.  A  complete  history  of  the 
county's,  area  and  inhabitants  must  recognize  this  connection.  The  area  of 
the  county,  along  with  the  peninsula  of  which  it  is  a  part,  has  been  under 
the  jurisdiction  successively  of  the  kingdom  of  France,  the  kingdom  of  Great 
Britain,  and  the  republic  of  the  United  States.  Indeed  there  is  a  still  more 
primary  relation  of  this  area  of  which  a  complete  history  must  take  note, 
•namely,  its  natural  relation  as  a  part  of  the  earth's  surface  to  the  peninsula 
lying  between  Lakes  Erie  and  Huron  on  the  east  and  Lake  Michigan  on  the 
west.  As  an  arena  of  the  history  of  the  people  occupying  it,  beginning  with 
the  family  of  "  Jabe  "  Bronson  in  1828,  it  has  had  its  animal  life  and  its  vege- 
tation, or  its  fauna  and  its  flora,  its  rainfall  and  other  meteorological  condi- 
tions, its  surface  with  slopes  and  prairie-like  portions,  its  land  and  its  water, 
its  lakes  and  streams  with  the  direction  and  movement  of  their  waters,  its 
soil,  its  stone,  its  clay  and  mari,  and  its  underlying  and  ontcropping  geo- 
logical strata.  All  these  natural  factors  have  affected  the  life  of  the  people 
who  have  increased  from  one  family  to  26,oc»o.  But  these  factors  and  their 
effect  upon  the  i^eople  cannot  be  understood  and  historically  exhibited  with- 
out considering  their  relation  to  the  large  region  to  which  this  particular  area 
belongs.  The  several  sciences  into  which  these  natural  features  fall  have 
described  and  explained  the  corresponding  phases  of  nature  in  this  large 
region.  Even  the  history  of  a  county,  or  of  a  township,  must  recognize  the 
influence  of  nature  in  it  upon  man's  life  in  it,  and  must  use  what  science 


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4  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

tells  lis  are  the  facts  and  truths  of  nature  in  the  large  region,  in  exhibiting  the 
facts  and  truths  of  nature  in  the  lesser  area.  On  this  arena  with  its  physical 
condition  and  its  previous  political  relations  with  France,  Ejiglantt  and  the 
United  States,  the  4.016  white  inhabitants  of  Branch  county  in  1837  began 
their  relation  with  the  new  state  of  Michigan,  which  that  year  was  admitted 
as  such  into  the  Union.  Since  that  time  the  inhabitants  of  the  county  as  a 
body  politic  have  carried  on  their  life  as  an  organic  part  of  the  state  of 
Michigan,  and  through  it  also  as  an  organic  part  of  our  great  American 
republic,  while  in  numerous  other  ways  than  those  strictly  civil  and  political 
the  people  of  the  county  have  entered  into  the  life  of  tlie  people  of  the  com- 
monwealth, of  the  nation  and  of  the  world,  and  have  taken  the  life  of  these 
larger  realms  into  their  own.  Tlie  forms  and  the  products  of  this  continuous 
interaction  will  be  to  many,  perhaps,  the  more  interesting  part  of  our  county's 
history. 

These  introductory  thoughts  indicate  the  scope  of  this  work  and  our 
aims  in  it.  Stated  briefly,  these  aims  have  been  three  fold :  i .  To  show  how 
Branch  county  came  into  existence  as  a  definite  area  and  what  it  lias  been  as 
such.  2.  To  portray  what  the  life  of  the  people  within  this  area  has  been. 
3.  To  make  the  \-ision  of  the  ])ast  a  pleasure  and  a  recompense  to  those  who 
have  done  anything  for  the  welfare  and  happiness  of  Branch  county's  people 
and  the  world  thus  far,  and  an  incentive  and  inspiration  to  all  to  live  for  this 
welfare  and  happiness  in  even  a  higher  degree  in  the  future. 

In  preparing  to  write  this  history,  it  was  natural  that  we  should  acquaint 
ourselves  with  H^iiate\'er  history  of  the  county  may  have  l>een  composed  by 
previous  writers.  Any  such  previous  work  would  be  sure  to  be  of  service  in 
presenting  another  and  later  picture  of  Branch  county's  life.  Considerable 
of  a  historical  nature  relating  to  the  county  has  been  written  and  printed  dur- 
ing the  last  fifty  years,  and  much  too  in  the  way  of  biography  of  persons  who 
have  been  resiclents  in  it.  What  has  been  thus  done  is  itself  material  foi"  our 
history.  Moreover,  justice  to  preceding  writers  and  honesty  with  our  read- 
ers require  that  the  work  of  those  writers  be  recognize{l  and  that  acknowl-' 
edgment  be  made  of  its  value  and  use.  It  is  our  puqrose  to  give  in  another 
place  in  this  volume  a  complete  bibliography  of  the  county.  In  onlv  two 
instances,  however,  have  a  history  of  the  county  and  biographies  of  its  resi- 
dents been  printed  in  book  form  with  contents  extensive  enough  to  be  prop- 
erly called  a  county  history  or  a  county  biography.  We  make  mention  here 
of  these  two  works,  inasmuch  as  the  first  one  in  particular  comes  into  con- 
sideration in  laying  out  the  plan  and  the  periods  of  the  present  history.  The 
first  one  was  entitled  as  follows:  "History  of  Branch  County,  Michigan, 
with  Illustrations  and  Biographical  Sketches  of  Some  of  its  Prominent  Men 
and  Pioneers."  This  history  was  written  by  Mr.  Crisfiekl  Johnson,  and  was 
published  by  Everts  and  Abbott  of  Philadelphia,  in  1879.  Tt  is  a  medium 
sized  quarto  volume  of  347  pages.  The  second  work  referred  to  has  the  fol- 
lowing title  page:  ".Portrait  and  Biographical  Album  of  Branch  County, 
Michigan,  containing  Full  Page  Portraits  and  Biographical  Sketclies  of 
Prominent  and  Representative  Citizens  of  the  County,  Togedier  with  Por- 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  5 

traits  and  Biographies  of  all  the  Governors  of  tlie  State  anil  the  Presidents 
of  the  United  States.  Chicago,  Chapman  Brothers.  1888."  This  volume 
is  a  smaller  sized  quarto  than  the  other,  but  contains  654  pages.  The  latter 
part  is  devoted  to  Branch  county  and  begins  with  page  180,  thus  giving  to 
the  county  474  pages. 

The  former  of  these  works  was  a  real  history  of  the  county.  The  lat- 
ter was  a  collection  of  brief  biographies  of  "  prominent  and  representative 
citizens  of  the  county,"  364  in  number.  Imt  it  contained  no  history  proper 
a])art  from  the  "  biographical  sketches."  The  other  volume  compiled  by  Mr. 
Johnson  was  a  fairly  full  general  history  of  the  county  as  a  whole,  with  a 
particular  history  of  its  one  city,  its  four  villages,  and  its  sixteen  townships, 
np  to  the  date  of  its  publication,  the  year  1879.  Since  then  no  such  particular 
history  of  the  coimty  as  a  whole  has  lieen  given  to  the  public  or  attempted 
until  the  present  work  was  begun. 

We  now  ]iresent  the  periods  into  which  the  entire  time  of  the  comity's 
life  may  be  con\'eniently  divided  by  reason  of  events  and  de\'elopments  in 
it.  These  periods  will  fomi  the  general  framework  which  we  shall  use  in 
building  up  the  present  history. 

1.  From  1828  to  1842 :  or,  from  the  year  of  the  first  white  settlement  in 
the  county  at  Bronson  to  the  transfer  of  the  county  seat  from  the  village  of 
Branch  to  Coldwater. 

2.  From  1842  to  1865 ;  or.  from  the  location  of  the  county  seat  in 
Coldwater  to  the  close  of  the  Civil  war. 

3.  From  1865  to  1879:  or,  from  the  return  home  of  Branch  county's 
soldiers  in  the  Civil  war  to  the  publishing  of  Mr.  Crisfietd  Johnson's  history 
of  the  county. 

4.  From  1879  to  1906;  or.  from  the  publishing  of  Mr.  Johnson's  hi,story 
by  Everts  and  Abbott  to  the  publication  of  The  Twentieth  Century  History 
of  the  County  by  The  Lewis  Publishing  Company  of  Chicago. 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 


CHAPTER  II. 
THE  CREATION  AND  SURVEY  OF  THE  COUNTY. 

Let  us  now  note  precisely  what  and  where  Branch  county  is,  its  area, 
and  how  men  came  to  define  its  boundaries  with  the  precision  of  civdized 
custom  and  to  make  them  permanent.  We  have  already  referred  to  the  act 
by  which  the  county  was  created,  and  have  quoted  from  it  the  exact  language 
in  which  its  area  was  described  and  its  boundaries  established.  The  language 
thus  used  by  the  legislative  council  of  the  territory  of  Michigan  is  that  in 
which  the  United  States  government  describes  and  bounds  the  surveyed  divi- 
sions of  its  public  lands.  It  implied  that  already,  previous  to  1S29,  the  sur- 
veyors of  the  United  States  had  been  over  the  territory  to  be  made  into 
Branch  county,  and  had  divided  it  into  "  ranges ''  of  townships  "  west  of  the 
meridian,"  and  into  "  townships  "  "  south  of  the  base  line."  These  terms 
assumed  that  these  men  had  already  measured  and  marked  off  this  land  into 
portions  six  mile.s  square  and  containing  a  certain  number  of  acres. 

This  work  of  the  United  States  surveyor  must  be  done  before  people  in 
the  domain  of  the  United  States  can  begin  to  live  upon  Its  land  and  form  such 
associations  with  each  other  as  constitute  a  county.  Only  on  condition  of 
this  preliminary  work  having  been  done  can  definite  individual  ownership 
exist,  and  those  mutual  rights  and  duties  of  men  with  each  other  be  established, 
which  make  an  organic  body  such  as  a  township  or  a  county  possible.  The 
legislative  council  of  Michigan  territory  were  able  to  declare  where  and  what 
the  area  of  our  covinty  should  be,  liecause  the  United  States  measurers  of 
land  had  already  laid  their  measuring  chain  upon  the  land  out  of  which  the 
county  was  to  be  made.  It  was  this  fact  that  made  it  possible,  for  example, 
for  John  Morse  in  1830  and  Robert  H.  Abbott  in  1831  to  each  become  the 
owner  of  "80  acres"  now  lying  within  the  limits  of  the  City  of  Coldwater. 
In  1796  congress  enacted  the  law  in  accordance  with  which  all  the  public 
lands  were  to  be  surveyed.  The  system  embodied  in  this  act  is  called  "  The 
Rectangular  System."  The  original  act  has  been  repeatedly  amended  by  con- 
gress, and  the  methods  of  making  the  surveys  under  it  have  been  continually 
modified  and  improved,  but  the  system  as  such  has  been  used  through  the 
hundred  years  from  1796  to  the  present  time.  The  entire  territory  of  the 
present  state  of  Michigan  has  been  surveyed  and  divided  into  townships  in 
accordance  with  this  system  and  with  reference  to  a  certain  "  meridian  "  and 
"  base  line." 

"  ITie  meridian  "  spoken  of  in  the  territorial  act  as  determining  the  loca- 
tion of  Branch  county  was  a  north  and  south  Hne  known  in  the  United  States 
survey  as  "the  principal  meridian  of  the  peninsula  of  Michigan."     It  is  a 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  7 

line  running  tlue  north  from  the  niouth  of  the  Auglaize  river,  which  empties 
into  the  Maumee  near  Defiance,  Ohio.  "  The  base  Hne,"  or  the  east  and 
west  line  also  mentioned  in  the  act  creating  the  county,  is  a  line  crossing 
the  principal  meridian  at  a  point  54  miles  north  of  the  southern  boundary 
of  tiie  state.  It  now  forms  the  northern  boundary  of  all  the  counties  in  the 
second  tier,  or  of  the  counties  from  Wayne  on  the  east  to  Van  Buren  on 
Lake  Michigan,  the  tier  next  north  of  Branch.  With  this  principal  meridian 
and  this  base  line  established,  the  surveyors  of  the  genera!  government  began 
to  go  over  the  public  land  of  the  peninsula  of  Michigan  lying  north  of  Indiana 
and  Ohio,  with  compass  and  chain,  and  to  mark  trees  and  set  posts  for  the 
boundaries  of  townships  and  sections  and  quarter-sections,  liiese  survey- 
ors knew,  of  course,  no  names  of  counties  and  townships  as  we  know  them 
now,  neither  did  they  give  names  at  all  to  townships  or  groups  of  town- 
ships as  they  surveyed  them.  They  recorded  and  dated  carefully  day  by 
day  their  measurements  and  tfipographical  notes  in  their  note-books,  thus 
creating  the  original  "  Field  Notes,"  which  in  Branch  county  and  every 
county  today  are  of  such  primary  and  incalculable  importance  for  titles, 
deeds,  mortgages  and  all  transactions  involving  buying,  selling  and  owning 
of  land.  As  they  tramped  over  the  surface  of  the  country,  measuring  and 
marking  it  off  into  portions  each  exactly  six  miles  square,  making  a  town- 
ship, Ihey  gave  no  names  to  the  townships,  but  merely  numbered  them  in 
their  relation  to  meridian  and  base  line,  according  to  the  ingenious  but  simple 
system,  the  principles  of  which  were  struck  in  the  Land  Ordinance  of  178.5,  but 
which  api^eared  fairly  well  developed  in  the  Congressional  Act  of  1796, 

Mr.  Silas  Fanner,  in  his  "  Michigan  Book  "  of  1901,  says:  "  The  pub- 
lic surveys  of  the  region  including  Michigan  were  begun  in  1815."  In  the 
"  Outline  History  of  Michigan."  contained  in  the  Legislative  Manual  of  1905, 
the  statement  is  made  that  "  the  survey  of  public  lands  began  in  1816."  We 
shall  see  that  there  is  a  sense  in  which  each  of  these  authorities  is  correct 
as  to  the  year  in  which  the  United  States  surveyors  iDegan  laying  the  founda- 
tions of  the  white  man's  civilization  on  the  public  lands  of  the  Michigan 
peninsula.  The  earliest  date  appended  to  any  part  of  their  records  or  "  field 
notes  "  of  their  survey  of  what  afterward  became  Branch  county,  is  January 
23,  1825.  It  was  thus  ten  years  after  the  beginning  of  their  work  in  the 
Michigan  country  that  the  sur\'eyor's  chain  was  first  laid  down  within  the 
limits  of  our  county.  The  eastern  boundary  of  Branch  county  was  stated 
in  the  creating  act  to  be  "  the  line  between  ranges  four  and  five  west  of 
the  meridian."  Its  distance  west  from  the  meridian  was  accordingly  twenty- 
four  miles.  The  surveyors  must  necessarily  start  from  the  principal  merid- 
ian in  measuring  off  their  townships,  and  work  east  and  west  from  it.  In 
working  westward  from  it  towards  our  area,  they  must  first  lay  out  the 
townships  which  are  now  Hillsdale  county,  as  this  is  the  first  county  west 
of  the  meridian  in  the  southern  tier  of  counties,  and  indeed  is  the  only 
county  between  the  meridian  and  Branch  county.  The  exact  location  of  the 
townships  destined  to  become  Branch  county  would  be  dependent  upon  the 
previous    location    of   the   townships   to    become   Hillsdale   countv,   and    the 


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8  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

dependence  of  all  these  townshijis  of  both  counties  was  dependent  upon  the 
Michigan  meridian.  This  dependence  was  so  close  and  so  important  that 
a  glance  at  the  survey  of  Hillsdale's  townships  and  at  the  history  of  the 
meridian  itself  will  be  interesting  and  wJl]  make  our  own  history  more  com- 
plete. 

The  Territorial  Act  of  October  39.  1829,  creating  Branch  county,  at  the 
same  time  also  created  and  set  off  all  the  counties  touching  it  on  its  three 
Michigan  sides,  namely,  Hillsdale,  Jackson,  Callioun,  Kalamazoo  and  St. 
Joseph.  The  meridian  itself  was  made  the  eastern  boundary  of  the  county 
to  be  called  Hillsdale.  This  meridian  has  already  been  stated  to  be  a  line 
starting  from  the  mouth  of  the  Auglaize  river  in  Ohio  and  running  due 
north.  -But  how  come  it  to  start  from  that  point?  Mr.  Crisfield  Johmson 
in  his  History  of  Branch  County,  p.  29,  has  indicated  the  answer.  In  a 
treaty  made  with  the  Indians  Novemher  17,  1807,  they  ceded  their  rights 
to  certain  land.  The  exact  language  of  the  treaty  describing  the  western 
boundary  of  this  land  was  in  part  the  following :  "  To  the  mouth  of  the 
great  An  Glaize  river;  thence  running  due  north  until  it  intersects  a  parallel 
of  latitude,  to  be  drawn  from  the  outlet  of  Lake  Huron,  which  forms  the 
river  Sinclair."  Evidently  the  boundary  line  in  this  Indian  treaty  of  1807 
is  the  origin  of  the  Michigan  meridian,  but  when  it  was  officially  deter- 
mined upon  and  proclaimed  as  such,  or  when  the  actual  survey  of  it  from 
the  mouth  of  the  Auglaize  was  begun,  the  present  writer  has  not  yet  with 
certainty  discovered. 

However,  as  to  when  that  part  of  the  meridian  lying  within  the  state 
of  Michigan  was  actually  run,  the  book  of  Field  Notes  of  Hillsdale  County 
in  the  office  of  its  county  sur^'eyor  shows  us  with  almost  conclusive  certainty. 
The  eastern  boundary  of  all  the  townships  in  the  easternmost  range  of  Hills- 
dale county  is  identical  with  the  principal  meridian.  All  these  townships 
are  in  "  range  i  west,"  that  is,  in  the  first  range  west  of  the  meridian.  The 
present  names  of  these  townships  from  south  to  north  are  Wright,  Pittsford. 
Wheatland  and  Somerset.  At  the  end  of  the  field  notes  of  the  survey  of 
the  "  East  Boundary  "  of  Wright  township,  or  T  S  S,  R  i  W,  in  the  Hills- 
dale Coimty  Book  of  Field  Notes,  is  written  the  following:  "Oct.  6,  1815. 
Benj.  Hough,  D.  S."  Tlie  notes  of  the  eastern  boundaries  of  the  other  three 
townships  are  subscribed  in  nearly  the  same  manner.  Tiie  notes  of  Pittsford. 
or  T  7  S,  R  I  W,  are  subscribed  thus:  "Surveyed  in  1815  by  Benj. 
Hough,  D.  S.";  of  Wheatland,  "Oct.  6,  iSi.^.  Surveyed  by  Benj,  Hough. 
D.  S." ;  and  of  Somerset,  "  Surveyed  in  1815  by  Benj.  Hough.  D.  S."  These 
subscriptions  or  certifications,  copied  from  the  manuscript  volume  of  Field 
Notes  in  the  office  of  the  county  surveyor  of  Hillsdale  county,  are  in  them- 
selves almost  decisive  proof  that  all  that  part  of  the  principal  meridian  of 
Michigan  forming  the  eastern  boundary  of  Hillsdale  county  was  run  and 
marked  out  in  1815  and  probably  in  the  month  of  October.  Quite  likely 
nothing  more  was  done  by  the  surveyors  in  the  year  181 5  than  the  running 
of  the  principal  meridian.  This  may  be  thought  of  as  the  Ijeginning  of  the 
public  survey  of  the  region,  and  in  tliis  sense  the  survey  of  the  public  lands 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  0 

of  Michigan  may  be  said  to  have  begun  in  tSi5-  ^n  the  stricter  sense, 
tlic  survey  did  not  begin  until  the  surveyors  actuahy  began  to  lay  off  town- 
ships, and  this  probably  did  not  commence  until   1816, 

But  while  the  eastern  boundaries  of  Hillsdale's  eastern  range  of  town- 
sJiips  were  all  run  in  1815,  none  of  the  other  boundaries  of  those  townships 
nor  any  boundary  of  any  other  township  was  run  until  in  1823.  Then  in 
1823,  1S24  and  1825  the  country  which  now  forms  the  area  of  Hillsdale 
county  was  marked  off  by  the  United  States  surveyors  into  six-mile  square 
townships  in  ranges  west  of  the  meridian  and  south  of  the  base  line,  and 
<!esignated  accordingly.  In  the  Field  Notes  of  Hillsdale  County  over  the 
date.  "Feb.  3.  1825."  and  over  the  name,  "'John  Mullett,  D.  S.",  stands  a 
note  which  shows  that  on  that  day  the  surveyors  touched  territory  that  is 
now  Branch  county.  That  note  is  this:  "set  jxist  cor.  T  5  &  6  S,  Rs  4 
&  5  W."  This  was  the  post  now  marking  the  common  corner  of  the  two 
townships  in  Hillsdale  now  known  as  Litchfield  and  Allen,  and  the  two 
in  Branch,  now  known  as  Butler  and  Quincy. 

We  thus  see  that  in  working  westward  from  the  principal  meridian,  the 
surveyors  reached  what  was  to  become  Branch  county  land  on  the  3d  of 
February,  1825.  or  a  week  or  ten  days  Irefore.  We  have  already  noted  that 
the  earliest  date  of  a  day's  survey  entered  in  the  Branch  County  Book  of 
Field  Notes  was  January  23.  1825,  A  photographic  fac-simile  of  the  page 
on  which  this  date  stands  is  inserted  in  this  volume,  it  being  j^rerhaps  a  repre- 
sentation of  the  oldest  official  document  originating  within  our  county. 
The  surveyor  who  signed  his  name  to  these  field  notes  and  entered  this 
earliest  date  apiiears  to  have  Ijeen  William  Brookfield.  The  latest  date  given 
in  the  volume  of  Field  Notes  is  June  12,  1820.  The  time  during  which 
the  'United  States  surveyors  were  occupied  in  the  survey  of  our  county 
lands  was  about  four  and  a  half  years. 

The  men  who,  during  these  four  and  a  half  years  of  1825  to  1829, 
actually  went  over  the  land  of  Branch  county  as  United  States  surveyors 
were  John  Mullett,  Robert  Clarke.  Jr.,  William  Brookfield,  and  Orange 
Risdon.  The  original  "  field  notes  "  or  records  which  they  made  of  their 
surveys  are  to  the  people  of  Branch  cotinty  without  question  the  most  import- 
ant documents  in  existence.  A  few  statements  as  to  the  history  of  these 
"  notes "  will  be  of  interest  to  those  who  see  the  important  things  in  a 
county's  life  e\-en  though  they  may  not  be  .conspicuous.  At  the  close  of  each 
day,  these  men  wrote  ofif  in  small  blank  books  the  records  of  the  Hues  they 
had  run,  their  direction,  the  exact  <listance  measured,  the  posts  they  had 
set,  and  the  trees  or  other  objects  they  had  marked  to  indicate  the  location 
of  their  lines.  The  original  note  books  written  out  by  these  surveyors  were 
deposited  with  the  land  commissioner  of  the  state  after  its  organization. 
They  are  now  in  the  office  of  the  commissioner  in  Lansing.  In  November, 
1905,  the  present  writer  called  at  the  rooms  of  the  state  land  office  in  the 
capitol  at  Lansing,  and  at  his  request  the  land  commissioner,  William  H. 
Rose,  kindly  put  the  original  note  books  of  Branch  county  as  written  up 
by  the  United  States  surveyors  into  his  hands  for  examination  there.     These 


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10  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

books  are  in  general  about  four  inches  wide,  six  inches  long,  and  alxiut  a 
quarter  of  an  inch  thick,  and  contain  about  thirty  leaves.  Each  book  con- 
tains commonly  the  records  of  the  survey  of  one  township,  that  is,  of  the 
lines  which  were  run  to  form  the  boundaries  of  the  township  itself,  and  its 
sections,  and  quarter-sections.  With  an  eager  interest  the  writer  took  in 
his  hand  the  book  containing  the  Field  Notes  of  T  5  S,  R  5  W,  now 
the  township  of  Butler,  the  features  of  which  may  serve  as  an  example  of 
the  entire  set.  The  book  contains  thirty-two  leaves.  On  the  first  page  is  a 
map  of  the  township,  with  its  sections  numbered  from  i  to  36,  and  with  its 
streams  and  some  other  topographical  features  indicated.  Underneath  the 
map  is  written,  "  Recorded  S.  Morrison,"  which  is  understood  to  mean,  that 
the  notes  of  this  book  have  been  copied  into  books  of  record  in  the  United 
States  Land  Office  in  Washington,  and  that  the  fact  and  the  correctness  of 
the  recorded  copy  were  certified  to  by  S,  Morrison.  The  pages  of  this  par- 
ticular little  book  are  not  numbered.  On  the  leaf  following  that  having  the 
map,  the  notes,  written  in  ink,  begin.  Apparently  the  notes  were  made 
during  the  day  or  at  the  close  of  each  day's  work,  and  when  a  day's  work 
was  done  and  the  notes  of  it  were  written  out,  the  date  of  the  day  was  ap- 
pended to  them.  The  first  date  thus  written  is  "  Oct.  30,"  but  the  year  is 
not  written;  then  follow  notes  and  dates  consecutively  until  "Nov.  7,"  im- 
.  plying  that  the  surveyors  worked  nine  days  in  succession  in  going  through 
the  timbered  lands  and  swamps  and  streams  and  openings  of  Butler  town- 
ship as  they  were  in  1825,  one  of  which  days  must  of  course  have  been 
Sunday.  Thirteen  dates  in  all  are  entered  in  the  notes,  the  last  being  "  Nov. 
13,"  ali  without  the  year.  On  the  last  page,  however,  stands  this  entry, 
"  Certified  this  21st  day  of  January,  1826.     Robert  Clark,  Jr.,  Dep.  Sun" 

The  "  field  notes  "  in  these  original  small  note  books  of  the  U.  S.  deputy 
surveyors  were  afterward  copied  into  books  of  record  in  Washington,  as  was 
illustrated  above  in  the  case  of  the  original  book  of  Robert  Clark,  Jr.,  con- 
taining  the  notes  of  Butler  township.  When  the  survey  of  the  entire  state 
was  completed,  the  original  books  themselves  were  given  into  the  possession 
of  the  state  land  commissioner  in  Lansing.  The  survey  was  finished  in 
1857,  and  May  nth  of  that  year  the  origmals  were  deposited  with  the 
commissioner. 

The  records  contained  in  these  note  books  have  been  very  important 
in  the  life  of  the  county  from  its  beginning  continuously.  They  are  the 
ultimate  authority  of  the  county  surveyor  in  determining  the  boundaries  of 
townships  and  of  farms  owned  and  bought  and  sold.  While  these  books 
in  Lansing  were  the  only  legal  records  of  these  surveys,  the  people  of  the 
county  were  obliged  to  obtain  certified  copies  of  the  records  from  Lansing 
when  needed.  It  would  seem  that  this  was  done  until  1871.  At  present 
the  county  surveyor  of  Branch  county  has  in  his  official  possession  in  one 
large  book  a  copy  of  all  the  field  notes  contained  in  the  small  note  books 
as  made  by  the  U.  S.  surveyors  in  surveying  the  entire  area  of  the  county. 
This  book  is  the  official  "  Field  Notes "  of  the  county.  At  the  dose  of 
the  notes,   on  page  579,   stands  the  written  certification  of  E.    H.   Parker, 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  U 

deputy  commissioner  in  the  land  office  at  Lansing,  with  the  date  of  March  22, 
1871,  that  tliese  notes  are  a  correct  and  complete  copy  of  the  originals.  There 
exists  only  one  other  copy  of  these  notes,  it  is  believed,  and  this  copy  is 
now  in  possession  of  Mr.  lanthus  D.  Miner,  a  resident  of  Coldwater. 
Mr.  Miner  obtained  this  copy  from  Dr.  John  H.  Bennett,  who  had  it  made 
from  the  county's  book. 

The  act  by  which  our  county  was  created  and  its  boundaries  named 
described  its  eastern  and  western  boundaries,  as  we  have  seen,  by  lines  be- 
tween ■'  ranges,"  and  its  northern  boundary  by  "  the  line  between  townships 
4  and  5  soulh  of  the  base  line."  Its  southern  boundary,  however,  was 
described  in  different  terms,  namely,  "  the  boundary  line  between  this  terri- 
to.^'  and  the  state  of  Indiana."  The  year  of  this  act  was  1S29,  and  it  recog- 
nizes the  lx)undai-y  of  Indiana  as  already  established.  The  boundaries  of 
states  are  determined  by  Congress.  The  act  authorizing  the  formation  of 
the  state  of  Indiana  and  naming  its  boundaries  was  approved  by  the  presi- 
dent April  19,  1816.  The  state  by  this  act  was  to  be  bounded  on  the  north 
"  by  an  east  and  west  line  drawn  through  a  point  ten  miles  north  of  the 
southern  extreme  of  Lake  Michigan,"  and  extending  from  that  point  on 
Lake  Michigan  to  the  north  and  south  line  forming  the  western  boundary 
of  Ohio.  This  is  the  first  time  that  this  line  appears  in  any  official  acts  of 
the  national  or  state  governments.  The  people  within  the  boundaries  named 
responded  to  the  enabling  act  of  Congress  by  electing  representatives  who 
were  to  meet  in  convention  at  Corydon,  June  10,  1816.  The  convention 
was  in  session  from  June  10  to  29.  It  accepted  the  boundary  proposed  by 
the  enabling  act,  and  December  nth  of  the  same  year  the  state  of  Indiana 
was  admitted  into  the  Union  with'  its  northern  land  Iwundary  a  line  drawn 
as  described,  from  a  point  on  Lake  Michigan  straight  east  until  it  meets  the 
western  boundary  of  Ohio  extended  northward.  This  northern  Iraundary 
of  Indiana,  thus  established  in  1S16,  remained  unchanged  from  that  time 
on.  It  became  consequently  a  line  to  be  recognized  by  the  U.  S.  surveyors 
in  their  survey  of  the  public  lands  and  their  laying  out  these  lands  into 
townships  from  certain  meridians  and  base  lines.  Some  nine  years  befoi'e 
any  of  the  land  now  forming  Branch  county  had  been  touched  by  the  U.  S. 
surveyors  this  northern  boundary  of  Indiana  had  been  authoritatively  pro- 
claimed on  paper,  though  the  boundary  was  not  actually  run  by  surveyors 
until  1827  and  1S28.  Moreover,  when  the  United  States  surveyors  began 
laying  off  the  public  lands  of  the  Indiana  country  into  rectangular  townships, 
they  did  it  from  another  meridian  and  another  base  line,  and  when  the  year 
1816  determined  the  northern  boundary  of  the'  state  of  Indiana,  it  deter- 
mined also  the  southern  limit  of  the  country  to  be  laid  off  into  townships 
from  Michigan's  meridian  and  base  line.  Hence,  when  in  working  south 
from  our  base  line  in  laying  off  their  six-mile  square  townships,  the  sur- 
veyors came  to  the  Indiana  line,  they  had  reached  the  limit  of  land  to  be 
made  into  townships   from  the  Michigan  base  lijie  and  meridian. 

It  is  to  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  U.  S.  survey  of  the  land  that  became 
Branch  county  was  made  after  Indiana  had   become  a  state   in    1816,   and 


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I--i  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

while  ilicliigau  was  a  territory,  and  that  the  creation  and  naming  of  the 
boundaries  of  our  county  was  an  act  of  our  territorial  authorities  in  1829. 
The  southern  boundaries  of  all  the  counties  in  Michigan's  southern  tier  are 
coincident  of  course  with  the  boundary  lines  between  the  state  and  the  two 
states  south  of  it,  Indiana  and  Ohio.  The  history  of  these  state  lines  is 
the  history  in  general  of  the  county  boundaries.  We  have  given  in  brief 
the  history  of  the  Indiana  state  line  and  of  its  particular  connection  with 
Branch  county.  Branch  is  the  easternmost  of  the  four  counties  having  the 
Indiana  Hue,  a  due  east  and  west  line,  as  tlieir  entire  southern  boundary. 
Hillsdale  county  lias  about  one  mile  of  this  Une  in  its  boundary,  which  then 
follows  the  Indiana  Ixiundary  south  about  two  miles,  when  it  reaches  the 
Ohio  line  at  its  starting  iK)int  eastward.  But  the  northern  boundary  of 
Ohio  is  not  exactly  a  due  east  and  west  line,  as  3  careful  look  at  any  accurate 
map  of  Ohio  and  Michigan  will  disclose,  and  the  same  is  true  of  course 
of  the  southern  boundary  of  Michigan  and  of  all  the  counties  bordering 
upon  Ohio.  These  state  lines  have  a  long,  large  and  interesting  history,  and 
this  is  especially  true  of  the  one  between  Ohio  and  Michigan.  But  Branch 
county  does  not  touch  Ohio  even  at  its  corner,  and  it  must  suffice  for  a  his- 
tory of  this  county  to  merely  indicate  the  movement  in  men's  thought  and 
the  chief  events  which  took  place  in  the  course  of  the  settlement  of  the  Ohio 
and  Indiana  state  boundaries  on  the  north. 

People's  thought  relating  to  these  boundary  lines  found  its  first  formal 
legislative  expression  in  that  great  regulative  document,  "  The  Ordinance 
of  1787  for  the  Government  of  the  Northwest  Territory."  Article  5  of  this 
ordinance  named  the  eastern,  southern  and  western  boundaries  of  what  be- 
came Ohio,  Indiana  and  Illinois,  and  theii  said:  "If  Congress  shall  find  it 
hereafter  expedient,  they  shall  have  authority  to  establish  one  or  two  states 
in  that  part  of  said  territory  which  lies  north  of  an  east  and  west  line  drawn 
through  the  southerly  l^end  or  extreme  of  Lake  Michigan."  May  7,  1800, 
Congress  made  the  eastern  part  of  our  peninsula  a  part  of  the  Northwest 
Territory  along  with  what  is  now  Ohio,  while  the  western  part  was  included 
in  Indiana  territory.  The  country  now  forming  Branch  county  belongs  to 
this  western  part  along  with  what  is  now  the  state  of  Indiana.  April  30, 
1802,  Congress  passed  an  enabling  act,  according  to  which  the  people  within 
certain  boundaries  might  form  a  state  to  be  called  Ohio.  The  northern 
boundary  of  the  new  state  was  to  be  the  east  and  west  line  of  the  Ordinance 
of  1787,  running  east  from  the  western  boundary  named  for  it.  Tlie  west- 
em  boundary  named  was  what  it  is  today,  and  as  this  line  lies  a  short  dis- 
tance east  of  Branch  county's  territory,  Ohio's  boundary  lines  formed  no 
actual  part  of  Branch  county's  boundaries  that  were  to  be.  Uncertaintv 
arose  in  the  minds  of  the  Ohio  people,  when  their  convention  came  to  con- 
sider the  enabling  act,  as  to  where  the  line  running  due  east  from  "  the 
southerly  1»end  or  extreme  of  Lake  Michigan  "  would  strike  Lake  Erie.  Not- 
withstanding this  uncertainty  and  a  proviso  adopted  by  the  convention  to 
meet  it.  Congress  admitted  Ohio  as  a  state,  February  19,  1803,  with  the 
due  east  and  west  line  of  the  ordinance  as  its  prescribed  constitutional  bound- 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  1;! 

arj'.     But  the  uncertainty  remained,  and  immediately  began  to  produce  trouble 
between  the  ?tate  and  the  people  of  the  territory  of  Michigan. 

The  dispute  over  the  exact  location  of  this  boundary  line  lasted  from 
1803  to  1837,  the  year  in  which  Michigan  was  admitted  to  the  Union.  Janu- 
ary 26  of  that  year  the  act  of  Congress  admitting  Michigan,  with  the  consti-. 
tntion  which  had  been  adopted  for  it,  was  approved  by  Andrew  Jackson  as 
president.  That  constitution  declared  definitely  what  tlie  southern  lx>undary 
of  Michigan  should  be,  and  the  act  of  Congress  settled  the  dispute  which 
had  been  troubling  the  people  of  Michigan  for  thirty-four  years,  in  which 
die  people  of  Branch  county  had  become  involved  along  with  the  rest.  Article 
I  of  the  constitution  of  our  state  describes  its  boundaries,  and  the  portion 
relating  to  the  line  between  it  and  Ohio  bears  so  many  interesting  marks 
uf  its  history  that  we  quote  it :  "  Commencing  at  a  point  on  the  eastern 
boundary  line  of  the  state  of  fndiana,  where  a  direct  line  drawn  from  the 
southern  extremity  of  Lake  Michigan  to  the  most  northerly  cape  of  the 
Maumee  bay  shall  intersect  the  same — sai<l  ]Mint  being  the  northwest  corner 
of  the  state  of  Ohio,  as  established  by  the  act  of  Congress,  entitled  '  An  act 
to  establish  the  northern  Ixaundary  of  the  state  of  Ohio,  and  to  provide  for 
the  admission  of  the  state  of  Michigan  into  the  Union  upon  the  conditions 
therein  expressed,"  approved.  June  fifteenth,  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and 
thirty-six,  thence  with  the  said  boimdary  line  of  the  state  of  Ohio  till  it. 
intersects  the  boundary  line  Ijetween  the  United  States  and  Canada  in  Lake 
Erie." 

This  boundary  line  between  the  two  states,  as  finally  fixed,  was  not  a 
due  east  and  west  line,  as  we  have  already  stated.  It  runs  a  little  north  of 
east.  Branch  county's  southern  Iwundary  has  not  been  at  all  a  part  of  that 
state  boundary  line.  Our  entire  southern  boundary  is  a  part  of  Indiana's 
northern  line,  but  this  was  defined  and  laid  out  with  a  reference  to  the  same 
IKiint  from  which  the  Ohio  boundary  line  at  first  and  finally  was  determined, 
namely,  "  the  southern  extremity  of  Lake  Michigan."  Moreover,  Branch 
county  people  in  1835  took  part  in  the  so-called  Toledo  War,  which  ai^ose 
ill  the  controversy  over  that  Ohio  line. 

We  have  already  narrated  the  action  of  Congress  and  of  the  people  of 
Indiana,  by  which  the  northern  boundary  of  Indiana^as  a  state  was  estab- 
lished in  1816,  and  made  to  be  a  line  due  east  from  Lake  Michigan  nmning 
ten  miles  north  of  the  east  and  west  line  of  (he  Ordinance  of  1787.  Through 
all  the  nearly  thirty  years  from  1787  to  1816,  the  people  of  the  Michigan 
peninsula  had  assumed  that  the  Or<linance  line  east  from  the  southern  ex- 
treme of  Lake  M  ichigan  was  to  be  recognized  as  the  Ixjundary  line  of  states 
south  of  them.  In  1818  the  authorities  of  Michigan  territory  protested 
that  Congress  had  no  right  to  include  in  the  state  of  Indiana  the  strip  oS 
land  ten  miles  wide  north  of  that  line.  They  continued  to  insist  iiixin  their 
just  claims  to  this  strip  even  up  to  the  years  of  1835  and  1836,  when  the 
people  through  their  conventions  were  seeking  admission  as  a  state.  The 
convention  at  Ann  .^rbor.  December  14,  1S36,  finally  agreed  to  the  condi- 
tions set  forth  in  the  act  of  Congress  for  the  admission  of  Michigan  as  a 


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14  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

state,  namely,  that  Michigan  should  accept  the  boundaries  claimed  by  Ohio 
and  Indiana  and  should  receive  the  Upper  Peninsula  as  a  compensation  there- 
for. The  congressional  act  of  admission  soon  followed,  and  from  January 
26,  1837,  the  boundary  lines  therein  laid  down  have  been  accepted  without 
serious  question. 

Thus  we  have  seen  that  the  southern  boundary  of  our  county  as  a 
legally  described  line  came  into  existence  in  1816,  that  that  line  was  de- 
scribed with  reference  to  a  geographical  point  used  in  the  Ordinance  of  1787, 
and  that  it  became  the  boundary  of  our  county  as  it  now  is  by,  territorial  act 
in  1829.  But  this  line  as  the  northern  boundary  of  Indiana  was  not  actually 
run  and  marked  off  until  1827  and  1828.  In  the  former  year  a  bill  was 
passed  by  Congress  providing  for  its  being  run  and  marked.  The  work 
was  begun  October  8,  1827,  by  Mr.  E.  P.  Hendricks,  under  the  authority  of 
the  surveyor  general  of  the  United  States.     ' 

The  four  small  townships  of  our  county  bordering  on  Indiana  were  not 
laid  ofif  by  the  United  States  surveyors  until  1828,  and,  as  appears  quite 
plainly  from  the  Field  Notes  of  the  county,  not  until  after  the  Indiana 
boundary  had  been  run  and  marked  by  Mr.  Hendricks.  These  four  are  town- 
ships 8  south,  of  ranges  5,  6,  7  and  8  west,  or  what  afterward  became  Cali- 
fornia, Kinderhook,  Gilead  and  Noble.  The  Notes  show  naturally  that  the 
township  of  range  5,  or  California,  was  the  first  to  be  surveyed.  Over  the 
date  and  name,  "April  7,  1S28,  Robert  Clarke,  Jun.  D.  S.,"  stands  the  fol- 
lowing note  of  the  east  boundary  of  this  township :  "  Intersected  N.  bound- 
ary of  Indiana  30.89  west  of  104th  mile  post.  Set  post."  April  13th  fol- 
lowing, Mr.  Clarke  ran  the  western  boundary  of  this  township  to  the  Indiana 
line  and  set  a  post  at  the  intersection  of  the  two,  "  Snowed  this  day  three 
inches  deep,"  he  wrote  as  a  beginning  of  our  weather  bureau  records.  April 
23d  he  did  the  same  for  the  western  boundary  of  Kinderhook,  or  the  eastern 
boundary  of  Gilead ;  April  30th,  the  same  for  the  western  boundary  of  Gilead ; 
and  May  6th,  1828,  he  ran  and  marked  the  western  toundary  of  T  8  S, 
R  8  W,  or  of  Noble  township,  and  set  a  post,  which  marked  the  southwest 
corner  of  the  county  when  it  came  into  existence  in  1829,  and  whicJi  marks 
it  probably  today. 

The  southern  boundaries  of  these  townships,  or  the  southern  boundary 
of  the  county,  piay  also  be  described  in  terms  of  latitude,  if  the  boundary 
between  the  two  states  has  thus  been  determined  and  recorded,  inasmuch  as 
the  former  boundaries  ought  to  be  identical  with  the  latter  one  or  the  latter 
ones.  The  1906  edition  of  Lippincott's  Gazetteer  gives  the  north  boundary 
of  Indiana  as  "  the  parallel  of  4:  degrees,  46  minutes,  north,"  and  the  south 
boundary  of  Michigan  as  "  the  parallel  of  41  degrees  and  42  minutes  north." 
There  seems  to  be  a  difference  of  four  minutes  between  the  latitude  of  the 
north  boundary  of  Indiana  and  that  of  the  south  boundary  of  Michigan, 
though  there  is  no  difference  among  authorities  as  to  the  exact  location  of 
the  one  line  forming  the  two  boundaries  on  the  surface  of  the  ground. 

The  exact  courses  of  the  line  referred  to  in  the  Ordinance  of  1787  of 
the  Harris  line  run  in  1816  for  the  northern  boundary  of  Ohio    and  of'the 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  15 

line  named  as  the  northern  boundary  of  Indiana,  and  becoming  the  southern 
boundary  of  Branch  county,  the  exact  courses  of  all  these  lines  depended  upon 
the  exact  location  of  one  point,  namely,  the  point  asstimed  to  be  the  southern 
bend  or  extreme  of  Lake  Michigan.  When  this  point  was  actually  deter- 
mined and  marked  by  the  United  States  surveyors  I  have  not  been  able 
definitely  to  ascertain.  The  first  actual  survey  of  a  line  from  this  point,  of 
which  I  know,  was  the  one  run  in  part  in  1S15,  and  which  was  l>egun  anew 
and  completed  in  1816  and  1817  by  a  Mr.  Harris,  in  accordance  with  the 
proviso  of  Ohio's  state  constitution..  The  point  must  have  been  established, 
therefore,  as  early  as  the  surveys  of  1815  and  1816,  at  any  rate.  In  1820,- 
imder  the  direction  of  President  Monroe,  a  line  was  run  and  marked  for 
the  northern  boundary  of  Ohio  in  accordance  with  the  act  of  Congress  of 
May  30,  1812,  that  is,  due  east  from  that  point. 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 


CHAPTER    HI. 

TOrOfiRAPHTCAL     FEATURES     OF     BRANCH     COUNTY— THE 
DRAINAGE  SYSTEM. 

Branch  comity,  situated  as  it  is  midway  between  Lake  Michigan  and 
Lake  Erie,  occupies  the  highest  position  in  the  lower  tier  of  counties.  Its 
average  elevation  is  between  ten  hundred  and  eleven  liundreii  feet  above  sea 
level. 

Its  surface  structure  is  easily  seen  to  be  due  to  glacial  action.  In  fact 
Branch  county  is  situated  upon  the  crest  of  a  moraine  beginning  near  Sagi- 
naw, Michigan,  and  extending  southward  into  Indiana.  The  soil,  rocks, 
hills,  valleys  and  lakes  all  bear  unmistakable  evidence  of  a  glacial  origin. 
There  are  no  mountains  in  Branch  county,  and  but  few  conspicuous  eleva- 
tions. "  Warner's  hill,"  immediately  south  of  the  city  of  Coldwater,  is  the 
highest  hill  in  Coldwater  township,  but  it  is  a  comparatively  gentle  slope 
whose  elevation  is,  perhaps,  sixty  feet.  Its  crest  extends  almost  east  and 
west  and  finally  merges  itself  into  the  surrounding  country  alwut  tw(5  and 
one-half  miles  east  of  the  state  road  running  south  of  Coldwater.  There 
are  notably  two  other  hills  in  the  northeastern  portion  of  Algansee  township 
conspicuous  for  both  height  and  slope.  They  occur  one  directly  after  the 
other,  their  elevation  being  about  seventy  feet  and  their  slope  making  an 
angle  of  al»ut  fifty  degrees  with  the  horizon.  These  are  three  of  the  more 
noticeable  hills  in  Branch  county,  but  all  of  them  will  bear  practically  the 
same  description. 

Branch  county  owes  its  beauty  almost  entirely  to  its  many  l>eautiful  and 
picturesque  lakes.  In  tracing  out  its  system  of  lakes  it  is  natural  to  start 
with  its  largest,  viz. :    Coldwater  Lake. 

Coldwater  Lake  lies  in  the  southeastern  part  of  Ovid  township  in  sec- 
tions 26,  27,  34  and  35.  and  also  sections  2  and  3  of  Kinderhook  town- 
ship. Its  extreme  length  from  north  to  south  is  about  two  and  one-half 
miles  and  its  greatest  width  from  east  to  west  al)out  two  miles.  An  island 
consisting  of  80  acres  lies  in  the  southeastern  i>ortion  of  the  lake  and  is 
almost  entirely  within  section  35. 

There  are  three  places  along  its  shores  where  cottages  have  been  built 
for  purptises  of  summer  resort.  Sans  Souci,  designating  the  largest  assembly 
of  cottages,  is  directly  opposite  the  island  on  the  eastern  shore.  Crystal 
Beach  is  next  in  size,  and  is  located  on  the  eastern  shore  near  the  northern 
extremity  of  the  lake.  The  third,  Idlewild,  is  on  tlie  western  shore  facing 
Crystal   Beach   and   about  one-half  a  mile   from   it.     The   sccnerv  at   Cold- 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  17 

water  lake  is  so  picturesque  and  attractive  that  many  resorters  irom  other 
parts  of  the  county  and  from  other  regions  spend  a  great  part  of  the  sum- 
mer there. 

The  outlet  of  Coldwater  lake  starts  about  one-fourth  of  a  mile  south  of 
IdleAviid  in  section  27  of  Ovid  township  and  runs  in  a  generally  westerly 
direction  through  that  section.  It  just  cuts  across  the  northeastern  corner 
of  section  28,  and  pursues  a  northerly  course  through  the  eastern  portion  of 
section  21  into  section  i6,  where  it  clianges  to  a  northwest  course  and  enters 
section  9.  In  section  9  it  again  runs  straight  west  into  section  8,  where  it 
empties  into  the  eastern  end  of  a  small  lake.  At  the  western  end  of  the 
lake  it  resumes  its  westerly  course  and  keeps  it  as  far  as  the  southwest  corner 
of  section  8.  At  this  point  it  receives  the  waters  of  Little  lake,  Lake  of  the 
Woods,  and  Bingham  lake. 

Bingham  lake  lies  in  the  northwestern  portion  of  section  30  and  covers 
about  100  acres.  The  water  of  Bingham  lake  empties  north  into  a  very 
teautifnl  lake  called  Lake  of  the  Woods.  This  lake  lies  mostly  in  section  19, 
but  it  also  occupies  parts  of  sections  20,  17  and  18.  It  is  about  300  acres  in 
extent.  Its  outlet  is  in  the  southeastern  quarter  of  section  18.  It  flows 
north  and  empties  into  Little  lake,  which  is  about  equally  divided  between 
sections  17  and  i8.  Little  lake  empties  northward  into  the  outlet  stream 
(]f  Coldwater  lake  at  the  point  mentioned  above. 

This  stream,  which  is  called  the  Branch  of  the  Coldwater  river,  now 
flows  north  through  sections  7  and  6  of  Ovid  township  into  section  31  of 
Coldwater  township,  where  it  empties  into  the  millpond  at  the  Black  Hawk 
mills.  From  this  millpond  it  flows  north  through  section  30  into  section  19, 
where  it  takes  a  northeasterly  course  through  the  southeast  portion  of  sec- 
tion 19  into  section  20,  emptying  into  the  western  side  of  South  lake,  which 
lies  just  west  of  the  city  of  Coldwater.  Into  this  lake  the  other  outlet  of  Cold- 
water  lake  also  empties. 

Returning  now  to  Coldwater  lake,  we  will  speak  of  the  two  Jakes,  Mud 
lake  and  Bartholomew  lake,  whose  waters  flow  into  it. 

Long  lake  is  situated  almost  entirely  in  section  23  of  Ovid  township, 
lying  diagonally  across  it.  One  peculiar  feature  of  this  lake  is  its  great 
depth.  Of  several  people  who  have  attempted  to  sound  its  depths  each  claims 
to  have  been  unable  to  reach  bottom.  The  shore  on  almost  all  sides  plunges 
down  almost  perpendicularly.  It  is  almost  as  if  an  earthquake  had  opened 
up  a  great  deep  fissure  which  had  afterward  filled  up  with  water.  Long 
lake  occupies  also  small  portions  of  sections  14  and  13.  In  the  southwest 
corner  of  the  latter  section  Loner  lake  receives  the  water  of  Mud  lake,  also 
in  section  13. 

Between  Mud  lake  and  Bartholomew  lake,  a  distance  of  perhaps  half 
a  mile,  there  is  a  natural  watershed,  dividing  the  two  chains  of  lakes  form- 
ing the  two  sources  of  the  two  streams,  the  Coldwater  river  and  its  branch, 
which  unite  west  of  Coldwater.  Some  years  ago  a  channel  was  cut  through 
this  watershed,  when  it  was  found  that  the  waters  of  Bartholomew  and  of 
the  lakes  north  of  it  would  flow  south  into  Mud  lake.     The  channel  at  this 


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18  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

point  was  afterwards  closed.  An  account  of  this  channel  is  given  elsewhere 
in  this  work. 

Bartholomew  lake  lies  in  the  central  portion  of  section  7  of  Algansee 
township  and  empties  by  a  channel  into  Middle  lake,  lying  for  the  most  part 
in  sections  7  and  5  of  Algansee  township.  A  channel  connects  Middle  lake 
with  Marble  lake,  a  comparatively  large  body  of  water,  about  half  the  size 
of  Coldwater  lake  and  located  in  sections  4  and  5  of  Algansee  township  and 
sections  32,  33,  28,  29  and  21  of  Quincy  township.  Cedar  Pbint  on  the 
eastern  shore  of  the  lake  in  section  33  is  the  location  of  a  summer  resort 
of  increasing  popularity.  A  small  but  exceedingly  picturesque  lake  in  the 
northwestern  corner  of  section  9  empties  into  Marble  lake.  This  lake  is  also 
very  deep,  no  bottom  having  as  yet  been  found,  although  it  has  been  sounded 
with  more  than  300  feet  of  line.     It  is  called  Hanchett  lake. 

Marble  lake  has  two  outlets,  the  one  leaving  the  lake  almost  on  the 
north  line  of  section  32  at  the  middle  point,  the  other  in  the  nortlieastem 
quarter  of  section  29.  The  former  flows  northwest  through  the  southwest 
corner  of  section  30.  where  it  turns  to  the  northeast  back  into  section  29 
again.  The  latter  flows  west,  uniting  with  the  first  branch  in  the  north- 
west corner  of  section  29.  From  here  the  stream  is  called  the  Coldwater 
river,  and  flows  northwest  through  section  20  into  section  19,  where  it  pur- 
sues a  westerly  course  into  section  24  of  Coldwater  township.  Immediately 
over  the  border  line  its  course  is  changed  to  the  southwest,  running  into 
section  25.  From  here  the  stream  runs  approximately  west  through  the 
northwest  part  of  section  26.  It  leaves  this  section,  entering  the  southeast 
corner  of  the  city  of  Coldwater,  through  which  it  flows  in  a  west-northwest- 
erly direction. 

The  stream  through  the  city  alternately  divides  and  imites  four  times, 
finally  entering  South  lake  west  of  the  city  in  two  separate  places.  It  is  for 
the  most  part  shallow,  deepening  only  where  it  has  been  dammed. 

From  South  lake  the  water  flows  into  a  channel  (natural,  but  dredged 
out  by  the  Wolverine  Cement  Co.  in  1905  and  1906)  running  due  north 
into  section  17,  where  it  empties  into  North  lake.  From  North  lake  through 
what  is  practically  a  continuation  of  the  same  lake  the  current  passes  into 
McCrea's  lake  and  then  into  Randall's  lake  in  section  5.  From  here  through 
what  is  known  as  "  The  Narrows  "  the  current  flows  into  Morrison's  lake, 
which  occupies  about  one-half  of  section  32  of  Girard  township.  Resorters 
have  also  built  a  few  cottages  on  the  eastern  edge  of  this  lake,  which  are 
known  as  Templar  Beach. 

At  its  northwestern  portion  Morrison's  lake  sends  its  water  into  an 
outlet,  which  runs  a  short  distance  north,  then  makes  a  bend  eastward  and 
with  another  northward  turn  expands  into  something  of  a  lake,  situated  in 
section  29.  From  this  the  Coldwater  River  again  takes  up  its  course  as  a 
stream  considerably  larger  than  before  it  entered  South  lake.  Its  course  is 
a  meandering  one,  its  general  direction  being  westerly  through  sections  29 
and  30  of  Girard  township  into  sction  25  of  Union  township,  where  it  flows 
into   the  Hodunk  millpond.     Pursuing  a  westerly  course  on  the  boundary 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  19 

line  of  sections  24  and  25  it  widens  considerably  in  a  northerly  direction  in 
section  23.  Soon  after  leaving  the  Hodunk  millpond  it  receives  the  waters 
of  Hog  creek,  which  serves  as  the  outlet  of  Vincent  lake  in  section  4  of 
Girard  tow-nship  and  also  of  a  few  minor  lakes.  In  section  23  the  Coldwater 
river  narrows  again  and  takes  a  northwesterly  direction  through  sections  23 
and  22  into  section  15  of  Union  township;  here  it  runs  due  north  through 
sections  15  and  10  to  section  3,  where  it  turns  abruptly  to  the  west  into 
section  4.  Here  it  again  turns  to  the  north  and  then  west  into  Union  City, 
where  it  receives  the  waters  of  another  small  stream  from  Calhoun  county. 
From  here  on  the  stream  is  known  as  the  St.  Joseph  river. 

The  St.  Joseph  river  now  flows  west  through  Union  township  into  section 
12  of  Sherwood  township.  From  here  it  pursues  a  generally  southwest  di- 
rection through  Sherwood  township  into  the  northwest  section  of  Matteson 
township.  After  only  about  a  mile  in  this  township  it  leaves  Branch  and 
enters  St.  Joseph  county.  In  section  21  of  Sherwood  township  the  St.  Joseph 
receives  the  waters  of  the  outlet  of  Sherwood  Jake  and  several  minor  lakes 
near  it.  This  stream  also  drains  Haven  lake  and  two  smaller  lakes  and  also 
Blossom  lake  in  sections  31  and  30.  , 

To  summarize,  it  is  seen  that  the  St.  Joseph  river  has  two  sources,  both 
in  Branch  county  and  within  a  few  miles  of  each  other,  viz. :  Coldwater 
lake  through  the  branch  of  the  Coldwater  river,  and  Marble  lake  through 
the  Coldwater  river ;  west  of  Coldwater  both  streams  unite  and  continue  their 
way  through  the  cliain  of  lakes  to  Union  City.  This  system  takes  in  nearly 
all  the  lakes  of  Branch  county.  The  remaining  lakes  empty  into  minor 
streams  and  creeks. 

South  of  Coldwater  lake  in  Kinderhook  township,  between  Silver  lake 
and  Crooked  lake,  there  is  a  natural  watershed.  As  we  have  seen,  the  Cold- 
water  lake  sy.stem  flows  north.  Silver  lake  of  section  25,  Kinderhook  town- 
ship, and  Fish  lake  of  section  14  of  the  same  township  empty  southeast  into 
Indiana.  Crooked  lake  of  section  8,  Pleasant  lake  of  section  17,  and  Lavine 
lake  of  sections  18  and  20  of  Kinderhook  township  are  distant  from  Silver 
lake  only  by  a  mile  or  two  on  the  other  side  of  the  divide  and  have  Prairie 
river  flowing  west  as  their  outlet. 

Matteson  lake  of  section  23,  Matteson  township,  empties  west  into 
Little  Swan  creek. 

The  numerous  marshes  which  accompany  such  an  abundant  supply  of 
lakes  have  been  for  the  most  part  drained  and  turned  into  tillable  land. 
The  rainfall  supplying  these  lakes  is  between  60  and  70  inches  annually,  the 
greater  portion  falling  in  the  months  of  April,  May  and  June. 

The  soil  of  Branch  county  is  very  fertile,  and  except  in  a  few  places 
not  stony. 

The  mineral  wealth  of  Branch  cormty,  except  for  the  marl  ocairring 
in  nearly  all  the  lake  bottoms,  which,  mixed  with  clay,  is  used  in  the  manu- 
facture of  cement,  is  nil. 

In  general  Branch  county  is  a  prairie  pitted  here  and  there  by  prehistoric 


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20  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

glacial  action  and  these  pits  are  now  filled  with  water  forming  the  beautiful 
and  extensive  lake  system  we  have  described. 

The  Drainage  System. 

Jn  Branch  county  in  the  year  of  this  writing  there  are  in  round  num- 
bers four  hundred  public  drains,  approximating  a  total  lengfth  of  one  thousand 
miles.  The  four  townships  of  Algansee,  Bronson,  Bethel  and  Butler,  which 
have  received  the  greatest  benefits  from  this  system,  have  had  their  land 
valuations  nearly  doubled.  Since  1898  an  average  of  about  $30,000  has 
been  expended  each  year  on  this  department  of  public  works.  Although 
under  the  direction  of  a  county  drain  commissioner,  an  ofiicer  elected  each 
two  years  by  the  board  of  supervisors,  these  improvements  are,  in  a  very 
important  sense,  not  "  public  works."'  The  cost  of  every  drain  is  assessed 
entirely  on  the  area  benefited,  not  on  the  county  or  township,  and  the  en- 
terprise is  thus  one  of  concern  and  expense  to  the  group  of  individuals  who 
receive  the  varying  benefits.  But  in  vieu'ing  the  system  as  a  whole,  and  its 
effects  on  the  county,  the  conclusion  is  easily  and  inevitably  reached  that  the 
drainage  work  done  during  the  last  fifty  years  has  actually  created  wealth 
to  the  aggregate  of  millions  of  dollars.  One  strikiing  illustration  will  suf- 
fice. For  years  a  large  portion  of  the  township  of  Bronson  was  impractic- 
able for  agriculture  because  of  its  low,  swampy  nature.  Abo\it  twenty  years 
ago  a  community  of  Polish  people  settled  there,  bought  the  swamp  lands  in 
small  lots,  instituted  a  proper  system  of  drainage,  and  now  own  some  of 
the  most  productive  farm  lands  in  the  county  and  have  nearly  doubled  the 
valuation  of  the  township. 

Drainage  began  in  a  limited  way  during  pioneer  times.  The  settlers  in 
the  valleys  of  the  many  sluggish  water  courses  were  compelled  to  ditch  chan- 
nels to  carry  off  the  water  that  otherwise  would  have  stood  for  a  large  part 
of  the  year  on  the  arable  land.  The  clearing  away  of  the  timber  and  brusli 
and  the  breaking  up  of  the  soil  and  consequent  destruction  of  the  grassy 
turf  that  had  become  matted  through  centuries  of  growth,  all  contributed  to 
more  effective  drainage.  To  get  rid  of  the  excess  of  surface  water  was  a 
hve  question  sixty  and  seventy  years  ago.  In  fact,  it  demanded  partial  sohi- 
tion  at  once.  But  the  means  already  indicated  were  so  far  effective  that  the 
greater  portion  of  the  lands  became  available  at  an  early  date,  without  any 
general  system  of  co-operation. 

Tlie  first  state  law  on  the  subject  of  drainage  was  passed  in  1S56.  This 
act  created  a  drain  commissioner  for  each  township,  who  should  have  juris- 
diction over  all  the  drains  entirely  within  his  township;  while  one  county 
drain  commissioner  exercised  supervision  over  the  drains  in  which  two  or 
more  townships  were  concerned.  This  created  an  unwieldy  system.  Seven- 
teen men,  with  varying  views  as  to  the  usefulness  and  practicability  of  drain- 
age work,  and  few  if  any  possessed  of  the  engineering  skill  needed  in  such 
construction,  formed  a  body  without  the  concentrated  ability  needed  in  sci- 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  21 

entific  drain-making.  Nevertheless,  the  stun  total  of  their  work  reclaimed 
or  benefited  thousands  of  acres  in  the  county. 

In  June,  1897,  an  act  of  the  legislature  took  effect  abolishing  the  office 
of  township  drain  commissioner,  and  put  all  the  drains  of  the  county  under 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  county  drain  commissioner.  It  further  providerl  that 
the  new  counti,'  commissioner  should  collate  and  systematize  the  drainage 
records,  which  hitherto  had  been  very  imperfectly  kept  by  the  township  com- 
missioners. This  task  of  recording,  alone,  has  consumed  a  large  part  of  the 
commissioner's  time,  and  it  is  due  to  the  present  commissioner,  D.  E.  Wea^, 
to  state  that  the  records  and  plats  belonging  to  this  branch  of  the  county's 
business  are  thoroughly  we!!  made  and  arranged.  Mr.  Weage  has  been  com- 
missioner the  greater  part  of  the  time  since  the  office  was  created,  and  it  has 
been  under  the  new  law  that  the  county's  drainage  has,  in  the  main,  become 
systematic  and  scientific. 

It  has  been  thought  well  to  present  a  brief  account  of  the  important  feat- 
ures of  the  drainage  work  in  the  variotis  towmships  of  the  county.  Butler 
township,  which  is  one  of  the  four  that  have  received  greatest  benefit  from 
the  worif,  has  forty-five  public  drains  wholly  or  partly  within  its  borders. 
The  land  of  this  township  is  largely  a  clay  subsoil,  originally  covered  with 
heavy  timber,  and  hence  lacking,  over  a  great  portion,  in  natural  <lrainage. 
More  land  has  been  reclaimed  in  this  township  than  in  any  other.  The  most 
important  drain  is  known  as  the  Warren  Brook  ditch,  which  crosses  tlie 
township  from  east  to  west,  almost  centrally  o\'er  the  area  between  Hog  creek 
and  Tekonsha  creek.  This  drain  was  constructed  in  the  seventies.  Another 
drain,  crossing  the  northeast  comer  of  the  townsliip,  from  Hillsdale  county 
into  Calhoun,  will,  when  completed,  reclaim  five  hundred  acres  and  liienefit 
about  fifteen  hundred  acres  in  Butler. 

Girard  township,  whose  most  conspicuous  feature  is  the  beautiful  and 
fertile  prairie  in  the  center,  has  required  as  little  artificial  drainage  as  any 
township  in  the  county.  Tliere  are  about  tweli'e  public  drains,  the  two  most 
important  being  a  continuation  of  the  Warren  Brook  and  the  Tekonsha 
Creek,  which  come  from  Butler,  the  former  finding  an  outlet  in  Hog  creek. 

Union  township,  though  originally  thickly  wooded,  has  more  natural 
drainage  than  Butler.  Its  thirty  public  drains  affect  about  five  sections  of  its 
area.  Tlie  largest  drains  are  Buell  No.  10,  in  sections  19,  30  and  31:  and 
Union  No.  36,  in  sections  2,  3.  il.  13.  14.  and  24,  afl^ecting  a  lar^e  area  in 
the  northeast  comer  of  the  tow'nship. 

Sherwood  township  is  cut  up  with  natural  water  courses,  chiefly  the  St. 
Joseph  river,  and  consequently  its  eighteen  ixtblic  drains;  are  comparatively 
short.  The  Kiiboura,  Blackwel!  and  Fimple  drains  are  the  largest. 

In  Matteson  township  are  twenty-five  public  drains,  none  of  them  ex- 
tensive. No.  16  and  No.  17  lieing  the  largest.  Nevertheless,  drainage  has 
added  materially  to  the  agricultural  wealth  of  this  township.  Along  the 
courses  of  several  of  these  drains  lie  large  areas  of  peat  or  muck  lands,  and 
since  they  have  become  available  for  cultivation  the  owners  have  engaged  in 


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22  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

mint-raising,  a  crop  that  is  becoming  a  strong  asset  in  the  agricuftnre  of 
southern  Michigan,  and  which  is  best  grown  on  the  reclaimed'  swamp  lands. 
With  an  average  yield  an  acre  of  such  mint  land  as  is  foiind  along  drain  No. 
17  will  produce  sixty  pounds  of  mint  oil,  for  which  the  market  price  is  three 
dollars  per  pound,  a  large  income  from  the  land  and  labor  expended. 

Batavia  township  is  crossed  from  northeast  to  southwest  by  the  swampy 
valley  of  Mill  creek.  Tlie  principal  drainage  worff  to  be  done  in  this 
town  is  the  straightening  and  dredging  of  this  sJuggish  stream,  some 
work  having  already  been  done.  Altogether  Batavia  has  thirty-three  drains, 
the  largest  being  county  drain  No.  5,  in  sections  6,  7,  17,  20. 

In  Coldwater  township  are  twenty-three  drains.  The  most  important  are 
drain  No.  15,  Benton  Pond  and  Williams  No.  28.  These  three  especially 
concern  the  city  of  Coldwater.  Benton  Pond  was  constmcted  to  take  the 
storm  sewerage  from  tlie  second  ward,  wliile  No.  15  and  No.  28  w^ere  also 
constructed  mainiy  for  the  city.  The  city  is  at  the  bottom  of  a  watershed 
of  abornt  five  square  miles  extending  east  into  Quincy  township.  In  freshet 
seasons  the  drainage  from  this  area  not  infrequently  sprrad  over  the  prairie 
and  caused  inundations  in  the  city.  The  municipality  therefore  constructed 
a  drain  along  its  eastern  border  to  divert  this  water,  in  1904,  and  after  it 
had  proved  ineffective  against  a  recurrence  of  tli*  flood,  the  'county  took 
charge  of  the  drain  and  improved  it  and  made  it  county  drain-  No.  15. 

Quincy  township  has  thirty-four  drains,  the  largest  being  No.  8,  which 
was  laid  out  in  1861,  but  did  not  become  fidly  effective  until  two  years  ago, 
when,  after  the  expenditure  of  ten  thousand  dollars,  it  drained  and  reclaimed 
a  large  amount  of  land  in  the  township. 

An  interesting  bit  of  history  may  be  told  in  connection  with  Quincy 
drainage.  In  1878  was  formed  the  "  Quincy  Chain  Lake  Channel  Company,"' 
the  president  of  which  was  James  Donovan  of  Quincy,  and  the  secretary  and 
treasurer  was  R.  W.  Berry.  These  men  and  their  associates  proposed  to 
dredge  out  a  navigable  channel  connecting  the  chain  of  lakes  in  Quincy,  Al- 
gansee  and  Ovid  townships,  so  as  to  afford  a  continuous  water  way  from 
Marble  lake  to  Coldwater  lake;  in  other  words,  to  connect  the  headwaters  of 
both  branches  of  the  Coldwater  river,  the  east  branch  of  that  stream  having 
its  origin  in  Marble  lake,  and  the  west  branch  rising  from  Coldwater  lake. 
The  purpose  of  the  channel  company  was  to  make  a  continuous  water  course 
of  some  twenty  miles'  length,  affording  magnificent  fishing  and  pleasure 
resorts.  The  enterprise  was  begun  with  much  popular  enthusiasm  and  the 
channel  was  actually  dredged  out  and  completed  according  to  program. 

About  that  time  it  was  discovered  that  the  surface  of  Marble  lake  was 
eight  inches  higher  than  that  of  Coldwater  lake.  It  had  previously  been  con- 
tended that  the  lake  were  of  equal  level,  and  that  the  connecting  channel 
would  have  no  effect  on  the  flow  of  the  water  though  their  natural  outlets.  But 
as  a  matter  of  fact.  Marble  lake  being  the  higher  of  the  two.  and  the  new 
channel  affording  a  freer  escape  for  the  waters  than  the  natural  river  bed.  the 
result  would  have  been  for  Marble  lake  to  empty  its  waters  through  the  chain 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  i!3 

of  lakes  and  thence  by  way  of  the  west  branch  of  tlie  Coidwater  river,  while 
the  east  branch  of  the  river  would  receive  a  greatly  diminished  supply  and 
might  eventually  become  entirely  dry. 

As  is  known,  the  Quincy  branch  of  the  Coidwater  supplied  the  W.  A. 
Coombs  mills  at  Coidwater  with  power.  As  soon  as  he  saw  that  the  opera- 
tions of  the  Channel  Company  would  threaten  his  water  supply,  Mr.  Coom!)s. 
secured  an  injunction  against  Mr.  Donovan  and  his  associates  preventing 
them  from  diverting  the  waters  of  Marble  lake  frc*n.  its  former  outlet.  Tlie 
courts  upheld  this  injunction  and  the  Qiannel  Company  was  compelled  to 
fill  up  part  of  the  channel,  etfectually  preventing  them  from  carrying  out  the 
broad  plan  they  had  contemplated. 

Algansee  township  has  thirty-seven  drains.  Most  !mjx>rtant  of  these, 
and  the  largest  in  Branch  county,  is  the  Pridgeon  and  Warner  drain,  which 
was  completed  in  1905  at  a  cost  of  twenty  thousand  dollars.  This  ditch  also 
drains  a  large  portion  of  California  township. 

In  Ovid  township  are  eighteen  drains.  Tlie  largest  is  the  Betts  drain, 
which  was  dug  in  1901,  its  course  lying  in  sections  6,  7,  8,  18,  19,  29,  30,  32. 
All  of  section  29,  as  well  as  portions  of  several  other  sections,  was  long 
known  as  "  Grass  Lake,"  and  the  land  was  sold  again  and  again  for  taxes, 
l>eing  totally  unfit  for  use.  The  old  drain  No.  7,  which  passed  through  it, 
did  little  to  reclaim  the  land.  Since  the  completion  of  the  Betts  drain  prac- 
tically all  this  submerged  land  has  been  reclaimed. 

Bethel  township  has  for  years  known  the  value  of  drains.  Elias  C. 
Tozier  now  deceased,  was  township  drain  commissioner  for  about  twenty- 
five  yearSj.laid  out  most  of  the  drains  during  his  term  of  service,  and  the 
results  of  his  careful  and  energetic  work  make  his  name  deserving  of  men- 
tion in  this  connection.  Bethel  now  has  thirty-six  drains,  all  of  about  equal 
importance  and  size,  running  over  fronr  one  to  three  sections. 

Bronson  township  has  thirty-two  drains,  the  largest  being  county  drain 
No.  ID,  built  in  1861  and  ninning  through  sections  13,  14,  15,  16,  20,  21, 
23  and  29. 

Noble  township  has  not  required  much  artificial  drainage.  Tliere  are 
eleven  drains,  Biosser  drain  and  Noble  drains  No.  4  and  Noi.  5  being  the 
largest. 

In  Gilead  township  a  large  acreage  in  the  central  portion  had  little  value 
until  it  was  cleared  and  drained.  Lang's  drain,  running  through  this  sec- 
tion from  Pleasant  lake,  has  lowered  the  waters  to  such  an  extent  that  at  the 
liresent  time  the  north  shore  line  of  that  lake  has  receded  south  of  the  state 
line.  Drain  No.  39  is  also  a  large  drain.  There  are  seventeen  public  ditches 
in  the  township. 

Kinderhool<  townshii)  has  ten  drains.  Kinderbook  No.  4,  which  is  the 
largest,  passes  from  the  center  of  the  town  out  through  the  lakes  into  Gilead. 

California  township  has  fifteen  drains,  the  most  important  being  the 
Pridgeon  and  Warner  drain  already  mentioned  in  connection  with  Algansee. 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 


CHAPTER    IV. 
THE  INDIANS  AND  THE  EARLY  SETTLERS'  LIFE  WITH  THEM. 

Tlie  first  settlers  of  Branch  county  had  Indians  as  their  neighbors,  and 
for  several  years  after  settlenient  began  there  were  more  red  men  than 
whites  in  the  county.  In  the  work  of  development  and  civilization  the 
Indians  had  no  part;  in  fact  they  were  an  adverse  element  which  had  to  be 
removed  before  white  men  could  proceed  to  build  homes,  make  farms  and 
lay  the  foundation  of  business  and  institutions.  Happily  for  the  history  of 
Branch  county,  the  Indians  were  never  hostile  to  the  degree  that  was  true  of 
Indians  in  other  parts  of  the  country,  notably  in  the  far  west,  Tbe  repre- 
sentatives of  the  government  were  able  to  conciliate  them  and  generally 
treated  them  fairly,  and  therefore  this  history  can  recount  no  revengeful 
outbreaks  nor  pitched  battles  between  the  two  races.  It  seems  necessary  in  a 
general  way  to  describe  the  people  who  lived  here  before  the  coming  of  the 
whites,  the  manner  of  disposition  of  their  lands  and  their  removal  to  the 
west,  and  what  relations  subsisted  between  the  natives  and  the  settlers. 

The  Indians  whom  the  pioneers  to  Branch  county  encountered  were  in 
nearly  every  case  Potawatomis,  an  Algonquian  tribe  that  originally  were 
found  by  the  whites  in  the  vicinity  of  Green  Bay,  Wisconsin.  But  about 
1670,  being  harassed  by  hostile  tribes,  they  were  moving  south,  and  by  the 
close  of  the  seventeenth  century  had  established  themselves  on  Milwaukee 
river,  at  Chicago,  and  on  the  St.  Joseph  river,  mostly  in  territory  that  had 
previously  been  held  by  the  Miami.  By  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth 
century  they  were  in  possession  of  the  country  around  the  head  of  Lake 
Michigan,  from  Milwaukee  river  in  Wisconsin,  to  Grand  river  in  Michigan, 
extending  southwest  over  a  large  part  of  Illinois,  east  across  Michigan  to 
Lake  Erie,  and  south  in  Indiana  to  the  Wabash  and  as  far  down  as  Pine 
creek.  Within  this  territory  they  had  about  fifty  villages.  The  principal 
divisions  were  those  of  St.  Joseph  river,  Michigan,  Huron  river,  Michigan, 
Wabash  river,  and  the  Potawatomis  of  the  Prairie  in  Illinois  and  Wis- 
consin. 

The  Potawatomi  sided  actively  with  the  Frencli  down  to  the  peace  of 
1763.  They  were  prominent  in  the  rising  under  Pontiac,  and  on  the  break- 
ing out  of  the  Revolution  in  1775  took  arms  against  the  United  States,  and 
continued  hostilities  until  the  treaty  of  Greenville  in  1795.  They  again  took 
up  arms  in  the  British  interest  in  1812,  and  made  final  treaties  of  peace  in 
1815.  As  the  settlements  rapidly  pressed  upon  them  they  sold  their  land  by 
piecemeal  and  removed  beyond  the  Mississippi.  Those  who  went  west  were 
settled  partly  in  western  Iowa  and  partly  in  Kansas,  the  former,  with  whom 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  25 

were  identified  many  individuals  of  other  tribes,  being  known  as  Prairie 
Potawatomi,  while  the  others  were  known  as  the  Potawatomi  of  the  Woods. 
In  1846  they  were  all  united  on  a  reservation  in  southern  Kansas.  In  1861 
a  large  part  of  the  tribe  took  lands  in  severalty  and  became  known  as  citizen 
Potawatomis,  but  in  1868  they  again  removed  to  a  tract  in  the  Indian  Terri- 
tory, where  they  now  are.  The  others  are  still  in  Kansas,  while  a  consid- 
erable body,  part  of  the  Prairie  band,  are  still  in  Wisconsin,  and  another 
l)and,  the  Potawatomi  of  the  Huron,  are  in  lower  Michigan.  According  to 
the  census  of  1820  there  were  3,400  Potawatomis  in  the  United  States.  In 
1884  those  in  the  United  States  were  reported  to  number  1,332,  distributed 
as  follows;  Citizen  Potawatomi  in  the  Indian  Territory,  550;  in  Kansas, 
430;  Prairie  band  in  Wisconsin,  280:  and  Potawatomi  of  Huron,  in  Cal- 
houn county,  Mich.,  72.  A  few  besides  these  are  scattered  through  their 
;incient  territory  and  at  various  other  points.  The  numbers  in  the  United 
States  in  1903,  according  to  the  official  report  were  as  follows:  Prairie 
band  in  Kansas,  602;  Potawatomi  of  Huron,  78;  Citizen  Potawatomi  in 
Oklahoma,   I.6S6. 

The  Indians  of  this  tribe  are  described  in  the  early  notices  as  the  "  most 
docile  and  affectionate  toward  the  French  of  all  the  savages  of  the  west." 
They  were  also  more  friendly  disposed  toward  Christianity,  besides  being 
more  humane  and  civilized  than  the  other  tribes.  Their  women  were  more 
reserved  than  was  usual  among  Indians,  and  showed  some  tendency  toward 
refinement  in  manners.  As  slaves  were  found  among  them  when  first  visited 
])y  the  white^i,  it  is  probable  they  were  in  the  habit  of  making  slaves  of  their 
captives  rather  than  torturing  and  slaying  them,  though  no  positive  state- 
ment on  this  ]H3int  is  on  record.  Polygamy  was  common  when  they  were 
visited  t>y  the  early  missionaries. 

These  \\ere  the  people  whom  the  first  settlers  in  Branch  county  found 
dwelling  in  small  village  groups  or  passing  across  the  county  over  the  Indian 
trails.  But  even  then  they  were  living  in  the  county  merely  by  sufferance  of 
the  government,  for  they  no  longer  had  \ega\  claim  to  the  land.  The  im- 
portant treaty  that  affected  Branch  and  other  counties  of  southern  Michigan 
was  the  Chicago  treaty  of  1S21.  which  was  negotiated  at  Fort  Dearborn 
on  the  29th  of  August  by  Governor  Cass  and  Solomon  Sibley  with  the  Pota- 
watomis, Chipewas  and  Ottawas.  the  first  named  being  the  tribe  principally 
interested  and  the  others  signing  the  instrument  as  auxiliaries  or  friends. 
By  this  treaty  the  Indians  ceded  to  the  government  a  tract  of  land  embracing 
nearly  eight  thousand  square  miles,  containing  Branch  county  and  all  those 
surrounding  it,  besides  practically  all  of  the  country  now  designated  as  south- 
western Michigan.  As  mentioned  in  the  history  of  Coldwater  township,  five 
small  tracts  were  reserved  from  this  cession,  one  of  them  being  in  the  center 
of  Branch  county. 

On  the  19th  of  September,  1827,  a  treaty  was  made  at  the  Carey  Mission 
(Niles)  by  Gov.  Cass,  the  object  of  which  was  to  gain  the  cession  of  a  num- 
ber of  small  Indian  reservations  (that  in  Branch  county  being  of  the  num- 
ber) "  in  order  to  consolidate  some  of  the  dispersed  bands  of  the  Potawatomi 


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26  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

tribe  in  the  territory  of  Michigan,  at  a  point  removed  from  the  road  leading 
from  Detroit  to  Chicago,  and  as  far  as  practicable  from  the  settlements  of 
the  whites."'  This  last  reservation  was  along  the  St.  Joseph  river  near  Niles. 
A  few  years  later  this  last  foothold  of  the  tribe  in  Michigan  was  signed 
away,  and  the  chiefs  of  the  St.  Joseph  band  of  the  Potawatoniis  agreed  that 
they  and  their  people  would  remove  from  the  country  in  1836.  This  was 
the  result  of  the  second  treaty  of  Chicago,  signed  on  September  26,  1S33. 
There  were  Indians  in  Branch  county  during  the  greater  part  of  the  decade 
of  the  thirties.  They  did  not  willingly  leave  their  Michigan  home.  When 
the  commissioners  escorted  the  bulk  of  the  tribe  to  their  new  homes  beyond 
the  Mississippi,  many  eluded  the  vigilance  of  the  officers  and  remained 
behind.  Some  even  returned  after  they  had  reached  the  western  reserva- 
tion. The  efforts  at  collecting  the  Indians  had  to  be  repeated  several  times, 
and  as  already  mentioned,  some  were  never  taken  away  and  their  descend- 
ants are  still  to  be  found  in  certain  localities  of  southern  Michigan. 

The  Indian  villages  that  were  found  in  the  county  by  the  early  settlers 
are  to  be  mentioned  in  connection  with  the  story  of  se'ttlement.  There  was 
one  on  Coldwater  prairie.  When  Wales  Adams  came  along  the  Chicago 
trail  in  September,  1830,  and  stopped  over  night  at  the  Bolton-Morse  taveni 
on  the  east  side  of  the  prairie,  he  learned,  to  quote  his  own  words,  that 
"  a  lodge  of  several  hundred  Potawatomi  Indians  was  encamped  about  one 
and  a  half  miles  in  a  northwest  direction,  to  which  place  the  travelers  re- 
paired. The  Indians  occupied  their  time  in  smoking,  dancing  and  speech- 
making  alternately.  They  were  discussing  the  subject  of  their  removal  be- 
yond the  Mississippi."  Girard  prairie  was  also  a  favorite  haunt  of  the  In- 
dians, and  in  historical  times  a  small  village  existed  in  Kinderhook  town- 
ship. 

The  relations  of  the  Indians  and  the  settlers  were  generally  amicable. 
Then,  as  now,  vagrancy  was  a  notable  characteristic  of  Indian  nature,  and  it 
was  chiefly  petty  stealing  and  meddling  that  made  the  whites  apprehensive 
of  such  neighbors.  Dnmkenness  was  the  source  of  most  of  the  crime,  and 
this  coupled  with  natural  shiftlessness  made  the  Indian  a  generally  unwel- 
come though  not  dangerous  visitor. 

The  presence  of  the  Indians  actuated  the  establishment  of  the  first  mer- 
cantile businesses  in  Branch  county.  Roland  Root,  the  father  of  E.  R.  Root 
of  Coldwater,  is  said  to  have  had  a  trading  post  on  the  banks  of  the  Cold- 
water  river  west  of  present  Coldwater,  and  there  trafficked  with  both  the 
Indians  and  the  whites.  Loren  Marsh  in  1831  had  established  a  trading 
post  in  the  eastern  part  of  Coldwater  township,  and  later  moved  to  a  location 
west  of  the  Coldwater  river,  where  he  carried  on  his  trade  with  the  Indians 
over  a  large  circuit. 

So  often  in  the  course  of  this  history  will  Indian  trails  of  Branch  county 
be  referred  to  as  affecting  settlement,  that  credit  should  be  given  at  this 
point  for  what  was  practically  the  only  public  improvement  which  mav  be 
said  to  have  originated  with  the  Indian.  The  eariy  settlers  were  familiar 
with    several    trails,    which    they    used    until    straight    roads    could    be    laid 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  27  ■ 

out.  and  in  some  cases  the  trail  bed  became  the  route  and  foundation  of  the 
highway;  the  conspicuous  example  of  this  being  the  Chicago  road. 

As  late  as  1840  Indians  were  not  uncommon  in  Branch  county.  They 
caused  the  settlers  much  annoyance,  and  the  latter  at  every  opportunity  urged 
their  removal  from  the  country  to  which  they  had  no  longer  any  legal  right. 
The  civil  authorities  finally  co-operated  with  the  military  of  the  United 
States,  and  a  detachment  of  troops  under  Gen.  Brady  of  Detroit  was  sent 
to  gather  up  and  take  away  all  the  Indians  who  still  remained  in  Branch 
and  surrounding  counties.  Even  then  some  escaped  the  forced  exile,  but 
with  the  departure  of  that  band  from  the  home  of  their  ancestors  the  Indian 
ceased  to  be  a  considerable  factor  in  the  life  of  Branch  county. 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 


CHAPTER    V. 

NUMBER,    NATURE  AND  DISTRIBUTION   OF  THE   COUNTY'S 
PEOPLE. 

The  first  enumeration  of  the  people  of  Branch  county  as  a  county  by 
itself  took  place  in  1837.  At  least  this  is  the  year  of  the  first  census  of 
which  there  now  remains  any  particular  record.  The  number  of  white 
men,  women  and  children  then  making  their  home  within  the  county's  boimd- 
aries  was  4,016.  This  census  was  taken  by  the  state  government  a  few 
months  after  the  admission  of  the  state  into  the  Union.  No  Indians  were 
included  in  this  census,  and  no  Indians  not  taxed  have  been  included  in  any 
census  of  the  county  taken  either  by  the  state  or  national  government. 

There  was,  however,  one  enumeration,  and  probably  two,  previous  to 
1837,  of  the  people  residing  within  our  county's  area.  The  year  of  the  first 
settlement  of  a  white  man  in  this  area  was  1828,  the  year  before  the  county 
was  created  and  named.  The  first  regular  decennial  census  of  the  United 
States  after  the  white  man  had  thus  begim  to  live  within  our  limits  came  in 
1830.  Branch  was  not  yet  separately  organized  as  a  county,  but  for  all 
judicial  purposes  was  attached  to  St.  Joseph  county,  and  along  with  "  Cal- 
houn and  Eaton,  and  all  the  country  lying  north  of  the  county  of  Eaton," 
formed  the  township  of  Green.  The  population  of  St.  Joseph  county  is  given 
n  the  census  of  1830  by  four  subdivisions  of  the  county,  the  second  of  which 
"  Green  and  Flowerfield."  The  total  population  of  Green  and  Flowerfield 
s  given  as  no,  71  males  and  39  females.  Green  and  Flowerfield  were  the 
westernmost  of  the  four  subdivisions  of  St.  Joseph  county,  and  the  total  of 
no  inhabitants  was  the  smallest  of  the  four,  "Sherman"  having  205,  the 
"Township  of  Brady"  391,  and  "White  Pigeon"  607.  Within  the  bound- 
aries of  our  Branch  county  itself  there  were,  it  can  be  said  with  certainty, 
not  a  hundred  people  in  the  year  1830,  and  probably  not  more  than  fifty. 
But  here  in  this  census,  we  see  at  any  rate  at  this  time  towards  fifty  people 
living  within  our  area,  the  fountain  head  or  nucleus  of  all  our  history. 

In  1834  a  census  of  the  Territory  of  Michigan  was  taken  by  order 
of  the  Legislative  Council  in  preparation  for  the  admission  of  the  territory 
as  a  state.  The  act  provided  that  the  enumeration  be  taken  by  the  sheriffs 
of  the  counties  "  between  the  second  Monday  of  October  and  the  first  Mon- 
day of  November,"  and  that  returns  be  made  to  the  county  clerks  and  to  the 
territorial  secretary.  The  county  had  been  organized  for  its  own  action  sepa- 
rate from  St.  Joseph,  March  i,  1833.  William  McCarty  had  been  elected 
sheriff  in  April.  But  there  is  no  record  now  in  the  county  clerk's  office  of 
any  census  taken  in  this  county  in  that  year,  nor  are  there  any  records  of 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  29 

sucli  census  of  this  county  in  the  state  hbrary  or  in  the  archives  of  the  De- 
partment of  State  in  I,ansing.  The  total  population  of  Michigan  territory 
bv  that  census  is  known,  but  not  that  of  Branch  county. 

In  starting  with  the  first  enumeration  of  our  county's  inhabitants,  and 
making  our  first  note  of  the  increase  of  population,  we  have,  therefore,  to 
think  of  the  period  of  seven  years  from  1830  to  1837.  Inferring  the  num- 
ber to  have  been  fifty  in  1830,  as  we  have  done,  1837  shows  the  number  to 
have  reached  4,016.  AH  the  counties  adjoining  us  had  in  1837  a  larger 
population  than  we.  Hillsdale  to  the  east  of  us  had  4,749;  Calhoun  on 
the  north,  7,959;  and  St.  Joseph  and  Cass,  with  areas  exactly  equal  to  ours, 
had  6,337  ''nd  5,296,  Today,  according  to  the  census  of  1904,  our  popu- 
lation considerably  exceeds  that  of  St.  Joseph  and  of  Cass. 

In  1840,  three  years  after  the  first  state  census,  another  national  census 
was  taken  and  in  1845  the  second  state  census.  In  1850  a  new  constitution 
was  adopted,  which  required  the  legislature  to  "  provide  by  law  for  an  enumer- 
ation of  the  inhabitants  in  the  year  eighteen  hundred  and  fifty-four  and  every 
ten  years  thereafter."  Accordingly,  from  1S50  on,  a  census  of  the  county 
has  been  taken  every  four  and  six  years  in  alternation,  the  work  being  doniC 
alternately  by  the  national  and  by  the  state  authorities.  We  present  here  in 
one  view  the  population  of  the  county  at  the  times  of  these  several  censuses 
from  1837  to  1904: 

1837 4,016  1870 26,227 

1S40 5.715  1874 25.726 

1845. ........   9.070  1880. ........ .27,941 

1850 12,472  1884 1..,.  .27,661 

1854 15,686  1890, 26,791 

i860.  ,  . 20,981  1894.  ... ... .  .  .26,207 

1864 22,458  1900 27,811 

I9CM- 26,397 

Space  will  not  permit  us  to  direct  attention  with  much  particularity  to 
the  facts  which  appear  011  the  face  of  these  figures,  nor  to  bring  forward 
facts  and  causes  which  lie  behind  them.  We  present  only  a  few  of  the 
more  general  and  striking  phases  of  the  population  during  the  seventy-four 
years  between   1830  and   1904. 

First,  as  to  the  first  decade  of  1830  to  1840.  Inferring  as  we  have 
done  from  the  census  of  :830,  that  the  county  began  with  fifty  inhabitants 
ill  that  year,  we  see  1837  giving  it  4,016,  and  1840,  5,715.  This  was  an 
increase  on  the  average  of  over  five  hundred  people  in  each  one  of  those  first 
ten  years.  Our  knowledge  of  the  persons  who  were  living  in  the  county  in 
1831  makes  it  certain  that  by  the  end  of  that  year  there  were  thirty  or  forty 
families  settled  in  it,  and  we  may  say  that  the  fifty  inhabitants  of  1830  had 
increased  to  150  or  200.  As  to  the  points  about  which  they  were  nearly 
all  settled,  these  were  Bronson,  Branch,  Coldwater  and  Girard. 

In  May,  1832,  the  call  for  Michigan  militia  to  aid  in  defending  Chicago 
in  the  "  Black  Hawk   War"   put  a  stop  almost  entirely  to  the  coming  of 


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30  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

people,  which  had  been  growing;  from  1830  up  to  that  time.  People  coming 
from  the  east  hecame  afraid  to  settle  where  there  were  any  Indians.  About 
the  same  time  in  1832,  cholera  was  brought  from  Quebec  to  Detroit  and 
Chicago.  Fear  of  cholera  combined  with  fear  of  Indians  to  prevent  emi- 
gration to  southern  Michigan.  After  May  many  of  the  stages,  which  had 
been  doing  a  larger  passenger  business  during  the  spring  over  the  Chicago 
road  than  ever  before,  were  taken  off.  The  check  put  upon  immigration  into 
the  county  in  1832  by  these  two  causes  was  felt  through  the  two  years  fol- 
lowing. There  was  increase,  but  it  was  slow.  With  the  opening  of  1835. 
however,  the  tide  began  to  flow  strong  again  along  the  Chicago  road.  A 
goodly  share  of  prospectors  and  of  the  occupants  of  the  white-covered  emi- 
grant wagons  were  attracted  by  the  lands  of  Branch  county.  In  the  spring 
of  1836  the  tide  doubled  its  volume.  It  seemed  to  those  already  on  the 
ground  as  if  the  whole  country  was  alive  with  emigrants.  Speculation  in 
land  and  platted  village  lots,  with  visions  of  great  profits,  was  a  large  factor 
in  the  movement.  The  numbers  coming  continued  to  increase  through  1836, 
and  with  the  opening  of  1837.  In  the  early  part  of  1837  Dr.  Isaac  P.  Alger 
found  thirty-three  taverns  on  the  Chicago  road  in  Branch  county  in  going 
from  Quincy  to  Sturgis.  But  in  May  and  June  of  1837  this  tide  of  immi- 
gration and  of  business  inflated  by  "  wild  cat "  currency  reached  its  height, 
and  then  began  rapidly  to  decline.  By  the  latter  part  of  autumn  [people  had 
stopped  coming.  The  standstill  of  1832  was  repeated.  But  the  people  who 
had  been  brought  into  the  county  by  the  three  years  from  1835  on,  mostly 
remained,  and  the  state  census  of  1837  took  them,  and  found  them  to  be 
4,016,  as  we  have  seen.  Probably  more  than  three  thousand  of  this  number 
came  into  the  county  during  the  three  preceding  years.  The  three  following 
years  added  only  1,699,  according  to  the  United  States  census  of  1840,  whicli 
made  the  population  of  the  county   5,715. 

We  will  next  take  a  general  view  of  the  population  of  the  county  as 
to  numbers  during  the  entire  time  of  the  county's  life.  We  note  in  this 
view,  first,  that  the  census  of  1880  stands  out  as  the  high-water  mark  of  all 
the  census  years  between  1837  and  1904,  that  highest  population  being 
27,941.  It  win  be  natural  now  to  note  the  movement  during  the  forty-three 
years  preceding  that  year,  and  the  twenty-four  years  subsequent  to  it. 

From  1837  to  1870,  or  during  tlie  first  thirty-three  years,  each  census 
showed  an  increase  over  the  one  immediately  before  it.  But  four  years 
later,  or  in  1874,  the  first  decrease  appears;  this,  however,  is  more  than 
overcome  in  the  six  years  following,  which  brings  us  to  the  high-water 
census  of  1880.  The  rate  of  increase  was  very  rapid  from  1840  to  the  begin- 
ning of  the  Civil  war  in  1861.  Tlie  four  years  of  the  war  lowered  the  rate 
of  increase,  but  during  the  six  years  from  1864  to  1870  the  rate  rose  to 
about  what  it  was  during  the  six  years  before  the  war. 

As  to  the  twenty-four  years  since  1880,  it  will  be  a  taie  genera!  state- 
ment to  say  that  the  population  of  the  county  in  numbers  has  continued  at 
a  standstill.    The  United  States  census,  taken  twenty  years  after  1880,  made 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  31 

a  difference  of  onlj'  130  between  the  population  then,  in  1900,  and  that  of 
1880.  it  being  130  less. 

To  understan<l  the  nature  of  the  i>eople,  whose  history  we  are  writing, 
we  mnst  give  some  attention  to  their  nationality,  to  the  communities  from 
which  they  came,  to  their  occupations,  and  to  their  intelligence  and  moral 
and  religious  ideals.  Very  few  counties  in  Michigan,  and,  indeed,  in  any 
western  state,  have  had  an  American  bom  and  homogeneous  population  to 
file  degree  which  Branch  has  had  all  through  its  history.  We  use  a  few 
facts  from  the  census  of  1880  to  illustrate  this  statement. 

By  that  census  there  were  no  Indians  and  no  Chinese  in  the  county,  and 
only  65  colored  persons.  St.  Joseph  had"230  colored  people  and  Cass  1,837. 
In  its  entire  population  of  27,941,  Branch  had  1,808  persons  of  foreign  birth. 
This  was  one  in  fifteen,  or  six  per  cent  of  the  total.  St.  Joseph  county  had 
in  that  year  3.554  foreign-born  in  its  poinilation,  and  its  total  was  some- 
what less  than  that  of  Branch.  There  is  an  interesting  significance  in  the 
several  numbers  of  these  1,808  foreigners  coming  from  different  foreign 
countries.  The  number  born  in  England  and  Wales  was  the  larg^est;  it  was 
481.  This  is  quite  a  sprinkling  of  fresh,  genuine  Englishmen  among  the 
inhabitants  of  the  county,  and  those  who  have  been  residents  of  it  have 
been  aware  that  they  are  a  perceptibly  distinct  element  of  its  life.  Se].>arate 
from  those  who  were  born  in  England  and  Wales,  the  census  of  1880  made 
enumerations  of  those  who  were  born  in  Ireland,  in  Scotland,  and  in  British 
America  or  the  Dominion  of  Canada.  It  is  rather  surprising  perhaps  that  a 
less  number  of  persons  had  come  into  Branch  county  from  Canada,  just  across 
t!ie  Detroit  and  St.  Clair  rivers,  than  had  come  directly  from  old  England 
across  the  ocean,  or  than  had  come  from  Ireland  alone.  There  were  276  of 
Branch  county's  [jeople  who  had  been  born  in  British  America,  while  330 
had  been  born  in  Ireland,  and  481  as  we  have  noted  were  natives  of  England 
and  Wales.  Besides  these  there  were  46  who  had  been  born  in  the  land 
of  Burns  and  Carnegie,  Counting  these  ail  together  as  being  in  the  large 
sense  British  bom,  they  make  a  total  of  1,133,  ^^^  become  by  far  the  largest 
foi'eign-born  ingredient  in  the  county's  population.  But  in  the  bearing  of 
this  fact  on  the  homogeneous  and  American  quality  of  the  population  as 
a  whole,  it  is  to  be  noted  that  all  these  English  speaking  foreigners  are  nearer 
than   any   other   nationality   to   native  born   Americans. 

Next  in  number  to  the  British  born  component  stood  in  18S0  those  born 
in  Germany.  There  were  479  of  them,  two  less  than  the  481  born  in  Eng- 
land and  Wales.  ITie  larger  portion  of  the  Germans  have  always  been 
found  in  the  city  of  Coldwater  and  its  immediate  vicinity.  Since  1858  a 
German  Lutheran  congregation  ha\-e  held  services  in  the  cit;'  in  German. 
Next  to  Coldwater  city  and  township.  Algansee  is  t^e  region  in  which  men 
from  the  land  of  Luther  and  Lessing  have  settled.  The  numl>ers  of  foreign- 
born  in  the  county  in  1880  from  other  countries  were  given  as  follows: 
Born  in  Poland,  141;  in  p-rance,  9:  in  Sweden  and  Norway,  7;  and  in  Hol- 
land, 3.  The  Poles  of  1880,  with  the  14.1  who  had  been  born  In  the  Poland 
of   Europe,  were  settled  almost  entirely  by  themselves  in  the  township  of 


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33  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

Bronson,  south  and  west  of  the  village.  They  have  since  then  multiplied 
rapidly,  and  have  been  spreading  out  from  their  locality  in  1880.  By  their 
industry  and  cheap  mode  of  living  they  have  saved  money,  have  bought  not 
a  little  of  the  land  upon  which  they  began  to  labor  for  wages,  and  have  been 
steadily  improving  their  condition  in  every  respect.  They  are  almost  uni- 
versally Roman  Catholics,  and  now,  in  1906,  form  a  large  Roman  Catholic 
congregation  with  a  church  building  in  Bronson  which  is  the  largest  in  the 
village.  A  PoHsh  priest  resides  there  and  conducts  the  church  services  in  the 
Polish  language  and  superintends  a  parish  school  in,  a  fine,  large  brick  school 
building,  in  which  the  teaching  is  in  Polish.  Our  Polanders  are  gradually 
becoming  assimilated  to  our  American  life,  but  as  yet  they  are  noticeably 
the  most  foreign  and  un-American  portion  of  our  county's  population  in 
physique,  in  language  and  in  religion. 

With  only  1,808  foreign-born  people  in  a  population  of  27,941,  the  mass 
of  Branch  county  people  are  seen  at  once  to  be  American  born.  But  the 
different  portions,  the  different  states  even,  of  the  Union  have  always  shown 
distinctive  qualities  in  their  people.  Michigan  belongs  to  the  first  or  perhaps 
the  second  group  of  western  states  that  were  settled  by  migrations  from  the 
eastern  states.  It  remains  to  glance  at  the  nativity  of  the  American-born 
portion  of  our  county's  people. 

The  census  of  1880  gave  the  following  figures  as  to  the  nativity  by  cer- 
tain states  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  county  at  that  time :  born  in  the  sitate, 
13,873;  born  in  New  York,  6,425;  in  Ohio,  2,706;  in  Pennsylvania,  828; 
in  Indiana,  790 :  in  Vermont,  301 ;  in  Massachusetts,  203 ;  in  New  Jersey, 
t43  in  Wisconsin,  83.  It  thus  appears  that  when  the  county  had  attained 
its  growth  as  to  population,  almost  one-half  of  the  people  were  Michigan 
born.  As  to  those  born  in  other  states,  the  figures  confirm  a  fact  generally 
perceived  and  frequently  commented  upon  by  the  people  of  the  county,  that 
they  are  more  largely  from  New  York  state  than  from  any  other.  More 
than  22  per  cent  of  the  population  in  1880,  or  nearly  one  in  four,  were  born 
in  the  Empire  state.  If  we  go  back  a  decade  to  the  census  of  1870,  the  fact 
of  New  York  state  people  leading  those  from  all  other  states  in  the  early 
population  of  the  county,  grows  more  conspicuous.  In  that  year  7,875  out 
of  a  total  of  26,227  were  natives  of  New  York.  This  is  30  per  cent,  or 
■nearly  one  in  three.  The  census  of  i860  made  no  note  of  the  nativity  of  the 
population  by  counties.  The  events  and  influences  which  caused  this  main 
stream  of  the  migrations  from  other  states  to  flow  from  New  York  will  be 
set  forth  in  a  future  chapter,  especially  in  the  one  treating  of  the  Chicago 
road. 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 


CHAPTER  VI. 
ROUTES  OF  IMMIGRATION. 

THE  ERIE   CANAL. 

In  1S25  the  Erie  canal,  after  eight  years  in  building,  was  opened  to 
traffic,  and  the  waters  of  Lake  Erie  flowed  across  the  state  of  New  York 
into  the  Hudson  river.  Tlie  dream  of  Henry  Hudson  in  seeking  a  northwest 
passage  up  the  river  that  bears  his  name  was  realized  after  more  than  two 
centuries,  only  instead  of  the  spice-laden  orient  the  new  way  led  to  the  far 
more  desirable  and  potentially  richer  American  west.  The  land-bound  com- 
merce of  the  Atlantic  seaboard  found,  in  this  direction,  outlet  to  the  eager 
west,  and,  borne  along  the  same  channel,  the  grain  harvests  of  the  inland 
were  brought  to  the  markets  of  the  world.  It  was  no  uncommon  thing  for 
fifty  ark-like  boats,  loaded  with  passengers  and  freight,  to  depart  from 
the  eastern  terminus  of  the  Erie  canal  in  a  single  day,  passing  to  the  west  at 
the  rate  of  four  miles  an  hour.  While  before  the  water  was  turned  into  the 
"  Big  Ditch  "  the  toilsome  urging  of  creaking  wagons  had  not  carried  a  frac- 
tion of  the  commerce  that  passed  along  this  waterway. 

The  Erie  canal  not  only  gave  a  tremendous  impetus  to  westward  expan- 
sion and  development,  but  it  changed  its  direction.  Herein  lies  the  signifi- 
cance of  the  canal  in  the  history  of  southern  Michigan,  including  Branch 
county. 

Before  1825  the  trend  of  western  migration  had  been  down  the  Ohio 
valley.  The  great  water  courses  were  fringed  with  settlements  when  the 
inland  country  was  still  an  unbroken  wilderness.  The  regions  bordering  the 
riverways  and  great  lakes  were  populous  before  a  tree  had  been  felled  for  a 
settler's  cabin  on  the  fertile  prairies  and  woodlands  of  northern  Indiana  and 
southern  Michigan.  In  proof  of  this  witness  the  admission  of  Indiana  to 
statehood  ten  years  before  the  first  settlers  came  to  her  northern  tier  of  coun- 
ties. Southern  Michigan  was  aside  from  the  current  of  emigration,  and  its 
settlement  was  delayed  while  settlers  were  overrunning  the  country  to  the 
south  and  the  Illinois  prairies. 

OVERLAND  ROADS. 

There  were  no  roads  in  southern  Michigan  even  for  several  years  after 
the  completion  of  the  Erie  cana!.  A  inap  of  the  highways  of  travel  in  the 
United  States  in  the  year  1825  shows  a  network  of  routes  along  the  Ohio 
valley,  but  none  north  of  the  watershed  into  the  great  lakes  which  would 
bring  emigrants  within  many  miles  of  Branch  county. 


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34  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

The  homeseekers  who  traveled  across  Lake  Erie  to  its  western  end 
would  on  their  arrival  at  Detroit  find  one  generally  used  road  to  the  west. 
'I'hat  led  southwest  to  Monroe,  up  the  valley  of  the  Maumee  river  past  Defi- 
ance, Ohio,  through  Fort  Wayne,  Indiana,  and  thence  northwesterly  around 
the  lower  end  of  Lake  Michigan  to  Chicago  or  further  west.  Fort  Wayne 
was  the  converging  jjoint  for  several  other  roads  leading  from  different 
points  along  the  Ohio  river.  The  great  bulk  of  the  pioneers  who  settled 
the  northern  Indiana  and  southwest  Michigan  counties  bordering  on  Lake 
Michigan  came  by  way  of  Fort  Wayne.  This  accounts  for  the  more  cosmo- 
politan character  of  the  population  of  that  region  than  is  found  In  Branch 
county.  Through  Fort  Wayne  passed  streams  of  emigrants  not  only  from 
the  New  England  states  and  New  York  and  Pennsylvania,  but  also  from 
Maryland,  Virginia,  the  Carohnas  and  Kentucky, 

It  should  also  be  mentioned  that  a  large  number  of  emigrants,  instead 
of  debarking  at  Detroit  and  taking  the  Fort  Wayne  route,  made  the  entire 
circuit  of  the  lakes  by  way  'of  Mackinac,  not  beginning  their  journey  over- 
land until  they  reached  the  lower  end  of  Lake  Michigan.  But  this  route 
also  took  them  far  from  Branch  county,  which  remained  practically  isolated 
except  as  a  chance  settler  might  fiiid  his  way  here. 

Railroads  at  that  time  had  not  become  a  factor  in  directing  and  assist- 
ing emigration.  In  1830  only  thirty-six  miles  of  railway  were  in  operation 
in  all  the  United  States.  Only  two  years  before  had  the  first  mile  of  the 
Baltimore  and  Ohio  been  built.  The  decade  of  the  twenties  was  prolific  of 
railroad  charters  and  plans,  but  Only  the  beginnings  were  made  of  the  rail- 
road building  which  soon  absorbed  the  energies  of  the  nation.  In  fact,  the 
part  of  the  railroad  in  southern  Michigan  was  that  of  development  rather 
tlian  settlement.  When  the  first  railroad  penetrated  Branch  county  its  popu- 
lation was  nearly  fifteen  thousand.  The  lands  had  been  taken  up,  and  the 
pioneer  period  was  practically  over  when  the  Southern  Railroad  began  push- 
ing west  from  Lake  Erie. 

CHICAGO   ROAD. 

Such  was  the  situation  for  Branch  county  at  the  completion  of  the  Erie 
canal.  The  routes  of  travel  were  around  the  lakes  to  the  north  or  through 
Fort  Wayne  on  the  south,  converging  a  hundred  "miles  to  the  west,  where 
settlement  was  begun  before  Branch  county  had  any  inhabitants,  except  the 
Indians  and  some  wandering  hunters.  What  reason  is  to  be  found  for  the 
settlement,  within  a  period  of  twenty,  years,  of  fifteen  thousand  people  in  this 
county?    Pre-eminently  above  all  other  causes,  the  "  Chicago  Road." 

While  the  stream  of  migration  that  poured  forth  from  the  western  end 
of  the  Erie  canal  would  in  time  have  overflowed  all  the  peninsula  between 
Lake  Erie  and  Lake  Michigan,  it  was  the  Detroit  and  Chicago  national  ^oad 
that  gave  it  direction  and  caused  the  rapid  settlement  of  the  southern  tier  of 
counties.  To  this  institution  more  than  any  other  except  the  character  of  the 
settlers   it  brought,  Branch  county  is   indebted  for  the  establishment  of  its 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  35 

prosperity  on  the  substantial  Ijasis  which  has  endured  more  than  two  genera- 
tions. 

The  famons  thoroughfare  which  passes  centrally  through  Branch  county 
from  east  to  west  may  reasonably  be  called  an  overland  extension  of  the  Erie 
canal.  It  was  a  national  highway  built  to  connect  two  important  strategic 
jjoints,  to  afford  rapid  transportation  of  military  supplies  and  armies  from  the 
■western  terminus  of  the  waterways  at  Detroit  to  Fort  Dearborn  on  Lake 
Michigan.  Fjnpowered  by  the  constitution  to  establish  post  roads,  the  gen- 
eral government  designed  this  road  as  an  important  section  of  the  postal  route 
l)etween  the  east  and  the  west,  and  for  the  twenty  years  before  the  railroad 
came  the  New  York-Chicago  mail  was  carried  by  stage  over  this.  road.  But 
its  character  as  a  government  highway  was  almost  lost  sight  of  in  the  im- 
portance it  attained  as  an  emigrant  route.  The  coming  of  the  mail  coach 
never  lost  novelty  or  ceased  to  be  the  event  of  the  day  for  the  people  dwelling 
along  the  road,  but  the  almost  continuous  line  of  settlers'  wagons  became  one 
of  the  commonplaces  of  life  at  that  time  and  attracted  little  attention. 

In  accordance  with  congressional  legislation  for  the  construction  of  a 
military  and  postal  road  between  Detroit  and  Chicago,  in  1825  the  president 
was  authorized  to  appoint  commissioners  to  survey  and  mark  this  road.  In 
1827  congress  appropriated  twenty  thousand  dollars  for  the  construction  of 
the  road.  It  was  the  original  purpose  to  build  the  road  in  a  straight  line 
between  the  designated  termini,  but  the  commissioners  soon  found  that  with 
the  money  at  hand  they  could  hardly  make  a  beginning  of  the  undertaking 
on  that  basis.  The  straight  course  had  to  be  abandoned,  and  one  was  adopted 
which,  while  presenting  fewer  engineering  difficulties,  was,  historically,  more 
natural  and  interesting. 

Before  civilization  introduced  scientific  road-making,  wild  animals  were 
doubtless  the  markers  and  surveyors  of  roads.  The  narrow,  deep-worn  and 
wavering  path  through  the  woods,  indicating  the  route  of  the  wild  animal 
i)etween  its  lair  and  the  spring  where  it  quenched  its  thrist  or  the  spot  where 
it  sought  its  quarry,  was  the  course  which  the  Indian,  and  later  the  white 
man,  took  in  going  through  the  woods  or  across  the  prairie.  Thus  animals 
were  the  first  road-makers,  and  blazed  the  way  for  their  immediate  succes- 
sors, the  roving  Indians.  The  latter  would  naturally  extend  and  connect  the 
trails  into  certain  long  avenues  of  travel  across  the  country,  which  they  would 
follow  in  making  their  pilgrimages  from  one  hunting  ground  to  another  or 
for  their  war  expeditions. 

Several  of  these  trails  existed  in  Branch  county  long  before  white  man 
set  his  foot  here.  Most  used  of  all  was  that  one  extending  centrally  across 
the  county  from  west  to  east.  This  was  not  only  a  favorite  route  pursued  by 
the  Indians  of  southern  Michigan,  but  since  the  war  of  1812  the  Indians 
dwelling  in  Illinois  had  been  accustomed  to  make  their  annual  pilgrimages 
along  this  route  to  Canada,  where  the  British  government  paid  them  their 
annuity  earned  by  loyalty  to  that  government  in  its  war  against  the  Ameri- 
cans. The  Detroit-Chicago  Indian  trail,  therefore,  had  historic  importance 
long  before  any  marks  of  civilization  had  been  made  in  Branch  county. 


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36  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

Accordingly,  when  the  government  surveyors  who  sought  to  carry,  out 
instructions  and  define  a  military  road  from  Detroit  to  Fort  Dearborn,  found 
tliat  the  appropriation  for  that  purpose  was  far  from  adequate,  they  deter- 
mined to  follow  the  route  that  had  been  surveyed  and  marked  by  the  animals 
and  the  Indians.  Of  course  many  of  the  windings  of  the  original  trail  have 
been  corrected,  either  when  the  road  was  made  or  later.  But  the  traveler 
whose  journey  lies  along  this  thoroughfare  may  say  with  approximate  fidelity 
to  history  that  the  road  is  but  an  Indian  trail  enlarged  and  improved  to  a 
modern  highway. 

The  engineers  who  began  the  work  of  marking  this  road  in  1825  did  not 
"make"  the  road;  they  merely  designated  its  course.  As  late  as  1829  the 
pioneers  through  this  county  called  the  road  little  better  than  an  Indian  trail. 
It  was  planned  that  the  road  should  be  one  hundred  feet  wide,  but  in  the 
actual  process  of  construction  it  seemed  most  expedient  only  to  cut  off  the 
trees  for  that  width  and  to  clear  the  stumps  and  smooth  the  roadway  for  a 
width  seldom  exceeding  forty  feet.  From  available  data,  it  seems  probable 
that  the  Chicago  road  was  still  in  process  of  construction  through  Branch 
county  as  Jate  as  1832.  For  James  G.  Corbus  in  that  year  was  a  contractor 
engaged  in  building  a  portion  of  the  way  on  Bronson's  prairie.  And  when 
Martin  Olds,  the  Batavia  pioneer,  came  along  this  road  in  1834  the  first 
stream  over  which  he  found  a  bridge  was  the  Coldwater,  the  bridge  at 
Masonville  having  just  been  completed  before  his  arrival  in  June.  Stages 
had  been  running,  however,  since  1830,  so  that  the  road  must  have  been 
passable  at  that  date  or  earlier. 

It  should  be  kept  in  mind  that  the  Chicago  road  was  a  national  highway, 
was  constructed  and  maintained  by  appropriations  from  Congress.  ■  At  a 
later  date  the  Michigan  legislature  provided  for  numerous  "  State  roads," 
sfeveral  of  which  were  built  through  or  in  Branch  county,  and  are  still  known 
as  "  State  roads."  The  third  class,  to  whicli  most  of  the  roads  in  the  county 
belong,  are  those  laid  out  by  the  township  highway  commissioners.  But 
both  state  and  township  roads  were  maintained  by  local  taxation. 

SOURCES  OF  EARLY   SETTLERS. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  themes  of  early  Branch  county  history  is 
concerned  with  the  sources  which  furnished  the  pioneer  settlers.  The  same 
study  will  indicate  in  a  graphic  manner  the  combined  influence  of  the  Erie 
Canal  and  the  Chicago  Road  in  directing  migration  to  this  county.  This 
route  was  the  most  natural  one  for  the  people  of  New  York  and  the  New 
England  states  to  take  in  moving  to  the  west.  It  is  from  New  York  state, 
indeed,  that  we  find  the  bulk  of  the  early  settlers  of  this  county  to  have 
come.  While  that  state  may  not  be  called  the  first  state  home  of  al!  these 
people,  it  will  be  found  that  in  most  cases  the  people  of  Massachusetts,  of 
Vermont,  or  of  Connecticut,  made  some  point  in  New  York  the  first  stage 
of  their  westward  movement,  in  many  instances  spending  several  years  there 
before  proceeding  to  Michigan. 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  37 

Samuel  H.  Berry,  father  of  the  Quincy  pioneers  among  whom  was  the 
late  Dr.  E.  G.  Berry,  while  a  native  of  New  Hampshire,  moved  from  that 
state  to  Pennsylvania,  then  to  New  York,  and  from  there  came  to  Brand 
county,  in  1835.  Saratoga  county,  New  York,  was  the  birthplace  of  Peter 
M.  Newberry,  also  of  Quincy,  who  in  1836  started  from  New  York  with 
the  intention  of  settling  in  Ohio,  but  landing  in  Detroit  came  down  the 
Chicago  road  to  Jonesville,  and  then  on  to  Quincy  township,  where  he  was 
one  of  the  early  settlers.  Other  pioneers  of  Quincy  who  came  from  New 
York  were  Alvarado  Brown,  from  Orleans  county;  John;  S.  Belote,  from 
Albany  in  1835 ;  B.  F.  Wheat,  the  banker,  who  came  from  Ontario  county 
to  Lenawee  county,  Michigan,  in  1836;  AnseH  Nicholls,  who  settled  in 
Quincy  township  in  1836,  was  from  Oswego  county.  New  York;  Chautauqua 
county  was  the  starting  point  of  William  P.  Arnold,  who  located  two  miles 
east  of  Coldwater  along  the  Chicago  road  in  1833,  and  in  1839  bought  a 
hundred  acres  in  the  present  Quincy  village. 

The  late  Dr.  W.  B.  Sprague  of  Coldwater  came  from  Rochester  to  this 
county  in  1835,  and  Syracuse  was  the  birthplace  of  Alonzo  Waterman,  who 
came  to  Bronson  in  1832  and  later  to  Coldwater  and  became  noted  as  a  miller, 
merchant  and  successful  business  man.  The  Erie  Canai  was  the  route  that 
Lorenzo  D.  Halsted  followed  in  coming  to  this  county  in  1836.  He  drove 
a  horse  on  the  towpath  from  Albany  to  Buffalo,  and  from  there  worked 
his  way  on  a  steamer  to  Detroit,  whence  the  Chicago  road  iinally  guided  him 
to  Coldwater, 

Monroe  county.  New  York,  was  the  home  of  many  who  later  became 
well  known  in  Branch  coi;nty.  James  M.  Burdick  walked  from  there  to 
Buffalo  in  1830,  took  a  steamer  to  Detroit,  and  by  the  roughly  marked 
Chicago  trail  reached  Allen's  in  Hillsdale  county,  whence  he  came  to 
Quincy  in  1836.  The  well  known  horseman,  Abram  C.  Fisk,  who 
settled  on  the  Chicago  road  just  east  of  Coldwater,  was  from  Monroe  county, 
and  in  the  next  year  the  pioneer  Harvey  Haynes  came  from  the  same  locality. 
In  1835  came  Lorenzo  D.  Crippen  from  Herkimer  county,  and  began  his 
career  as  merchant,  manufacturer  and  public-spirited  citizen  of  Coldwater. 
And  in  the  next  year  James  R.  Wilcox,  also  of  Coldwater  township,  came 
from  Cayuga  county. 

Many  other  instances  of  this  community  of  origin  might  be  set  down 
here,  but  it  is  sufficient  to  indicate  the  subject  to  the  reader,  who  will  find 
abimdant  examples  of  the  historical  phenomenon  on  nearly  every  page  of  the 
following  narrative. 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 


CHAPTER  Vn. 
FORMATION  OF  TOWNSHIPS. 

A  map  of  Branch  county  shows  sixteen  civil  townships  blocked  out  four 
square,  and  laid  out  on  the  lines  of  the  original  United  States  government 
survey.  Although  the  government  surveyors  blocked  out  the  territory  that 
became  Branch  county  by  means  of  the  range  and  township  lines  that  desig- 
nate the  boundaries  of  the  present  civil  townships,  it  was  more  than  fifteen 
years  after  the  creation  of  Branch  county  before  the  townships  were  all  ■ 
organized  and  named  as  we  know  them  at  present.  •  The  civil  townships  and 
the  townships  of  government  survey  happen  to  correspond  in  Branch  county ; 
but  there  is  no  necessary  connection  between  the  two,  and  in  some  other 
counties  one  civil  township  is  more  than  an  area  six  miles  square.  The 
civil  township  is  created  for  the  convenience  of  government,  and  in  Michigan 
the  legislature  has  almost  invariably  caused  its  boundaries  to  coincide  with 
those  of  the  United  States  survey,  as  has  been  the  case  in  this  county.  But 
during  the  period  of  early  settlement  the  population  was  not  dense  enough  to 
warrant  a  civil  organization  in  each  of  the  sixteen  surveyed  townships.  So 
it  is  that  the  map  of  Branch  county  underwent  many  changes  up  to  1846. 
There  were  townships  of  varying  extent  and  form,  and  several  whose 
names  are  practically  forgotten.  It  will  be  the  purpose  of  the  following 
paragraphs  to  show  how  the  county  was  divided  from  time  to  time  and  to 
describe  the  process  of  township  making  until  the  boiindaries  were  fixed  as 
at  present. 

It  has  been  elsewhere  related  that  Branch  county,  although  created  in 
1829,  did  not  obtain  a  separate  county  government  until  1833,  ^nd  that  in 
the  meantime  it  was  attached  to  St.  Joseph  county  for  judicial  purposes. 
The  great  area  of  adjoining  country  which  for  legal  purixjses  became  a  part 
of  St.  Joseph  county  was  divided  into  townships,  and  the  township  of  whicli 
Branch  county  was  first  a  part  was  known  by  the  name  of  Green.  Not  only 
did  the  "  Town  of  Green  "'  comprise  Branch  county,  but  several  other  counties 
as  well,  and  a  vast  territory  not  yet  laid  out  in  county  form. 

In  the  first  instance,  then.  Branch  county  was  only  part  of  a  town,ship. 
As  population  increased,  but  before  it  was  sufficient  to  warrant  county  organ- 
ization, Branch  county's  area  was  laid  off  into  two  townships.  This  act 
was  approved  June  29,  1832,  but  was  not  to  take  effect  until  March  i,  1833. 
In  the  meantime  the  legislature  provided  for  the  organization  of  county 
government  in  Branch  countv,  which  was  also  to  take  effect  on  March  i 
1833- 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  39 

Accordingly,  on  the  date  of  the  county's  organization  two  townships 
came  into  existence.  All  of  the  county  east  of  a  north  and  south  line  passing 
through  the  center  was  called  Coldwater  township,  from  which  eight  town- 
ships have  since  been  made.  Ail  the  western  half  of  the  county  was  made 
into  a  township  named  Prairie  River. 

Less  than  two  months  later,  on  April  2,-^,  1833,  the  following  section 
of  act  of  the  legislature  was  approved : 

"  That  the  township  of  Prairie  River  in  the  county  of  Branch  shall  be 
called  Green,  and  by  the  name  of  Green  shall  hereafter  be  known  and  dis- 
tinguished, any  law  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding." 

Notwithstanding  the  passage  of  this  act  which  revived  the  name  of 
Green  in  such  emphatic  terms,  the  township  continued  to  be  known  as  Prairie 
River  .both  in  the  supervisors'  records  beginning  with  the  first  meeting  in 
Octo!)er,  1S33,  and  also,  as  will  be  seen,  in  the  later  laws  affecting  the  parti- 
tion of  that  township. 

March  7,  18134,  was  the  first  act  in  the  process  of  division  of  these  two 
larger  townships.  By  a  law  approved  on  that  date  the  north  tier  of  surveyed 
townships,  technically  known  as  "  townships  5  south,  in  ranges  5,  6,  7  and  8 
west,"  was  created  a  township  by  name  of  Girard.  This  reduced  the  area 
of  the  other  two  townships,  and  made  one  long  narrow  township  and  two 
relatively  square  ones. 

Two  years  passed  before  the  next  change.  By  act  approved  March  23, 
1836,  three  new  civil  townships  were  carved  from  the  older  ones.  Coldwater 
township  was  cut  in  two  by  the  north  and  south  line  between  ranges  five  and 
six,  and  the  east  half  was  called  Quincy,  comprising  the  present  townships 
of  Quincy,  Algansee  and  California, 

At  the  same  time  Prairie  River  was  reduced  by  almost  half.  The 
following  is  the  law :  "  All  that  portion  of  the  county  of  Branch  designated 
by  the  United  States  survey  as  townships  six  and  seven  south,  of  range 
seven  west,  be  and  the  same  is  hereby  set  off  and  organized  into  a  separate 
township  by  the  name  of  Batavia,  and  the  first  township  meeting  therein  shall 
be  held  at  the  dwelling  house  of  William  Reynolds  in  said  township." 

Original  Batavia  was  thus  twice  as  large  as  now,  and  it  so  remained  for 
nearly  a  year. 

Also  in  March,  1836,  Girard  was  cut  in  half,  and  the  two  surveyed 
townships  on  the  west  were  set  off  by  the  name  of  Sherwood.  In  1837,  the 
year  of  Michigan's  admission  to  the  Union,  Branch  county  had  six  town- 
ships—on the  north  were  Girard  and  Sherwood,  and  from  east  to  west  they 
were  Quincy.  Coldwater,  Batavia  and  Prairie  River,  all  of  rectangular  shape 
except  Prairie  River,  from  the  bottom  of  which  projected  eastward  the  frac- 
tional township  that  soon  became  Gilead. 

The  act  of  the  legislature  approved  March  11,  1837,  gave  five  more 
civil  townships  to  Branch  coiintj-.  Sherwood  was  divided,  and  the  east  half 
was  called  Union.  The  previous  section  of  the  same  act  organized  the  town- 
ship of  Ovid,  bounding  it  so  as  to  include  the  present  Kinderhook.  Ovid 
being  set  off  from  Coldwater,  the  latter  was  accordingly  left  with  its  present 


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40  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

boundaries  and  must  be  considered  the  first  township  in  Branch  county  to  be 

reduced  to  the  regular  area  of  the  government  township. 

At  this  date  the  southern  haif  of  Batavia  township  was  set  off  under 

the  name  of  the  "  Township  of  Ehzabetli."     After  two  years  the  "  Town  of 

Elizabeth  "  became  the  "  Town  of  Bethel  "  by  act  of  the  legislature  of  1838-39, 

and  as  Bethel  it  has  since  been  known  to  history. 

The  next  section  of  this  act  of  March   li,   1837,  brings  into  existence 

the  township  of  Galead.     Up  to  that  date  the  membiers  of  Bishop  Chase's 

colony  and  the  other  settlers  of  fractional   township  eight  in  range  seven 

had  been  citizens  of  Prairie  River  township.  Gilead  was  the  first  of  the 
four   fractional   townships   to  obtain   separate   town   government,    its    rapid 

settlement  entitling  it  to  this  privilege  as  soon  as  any  of  the  full  townships. 
With  the  approval  of  the  act  of  March  11,  1837,  the  township  of -Prairie 

River  ceased  to  be  a  name.  Originally  comprising  the  west  half  of  the 
county,  it  had  been  reduced  in  size,  first  by  the  formation  of  Girard,  then 
Batavia,  then  Gilead,  and  now  ail  that  remained,  in  the  range  south  of  Sher- 
wood, was  given  the  name  of  Bronson.  The  section  providing  for  this 
change  is  worth  quoting  for  several  historical  points  contained.  It  reads : 
"  All  that  portion  of  the  county  of  Branch  known  as  the  township  of  Prairie 

River,  and  the  village  in  said  township  by  the  name  of  York,  shall,  on  and 
after  the  first  Monday  of  April,  next,  be  known  and  designated  by  the  name 
of  Bronson." 

The  next  act  dealing  with  Branch  county  townships  was  approved  March 
6,  1838.  On  that  date  Matteson  township  was  formed  from  Bronson,  while 
in  the  northeast  comer  of  the  county  the  double  area  of  Girard  was  halved 
and  the  eastern  part  was  named  Butler. 

After  all  these  divisions  Quincy  remained  the  largest  township  in  the 
coumy.  But  on  April  2,  1838,  the  Quincy  as  we  know  it  to-day  came  into 
existence,  and  the  block  of  territory  south  of  it  to  the  state  line  was  named 
Algansee. 

The  county  now  had  thirteen  townships.  It  was  nearly  four  years  later, 
on  February  16,  1842,  when  Kinderhook  was  set  off  from  Ovid.  Noble  was 
named  and  permitted  to  form  its  own  government  apart  from  Bronson  on 
March  19,  1845.  Last  of  all  the  sixteen  townships  to  come  into  being, 
California  was  separated  from  Algansee  on  March  25,  1846.  It  was  not 
until  these  respective  dates,  of  course,  that  Ovid,  Bronson  and  Algansee 
assumed  the  area  which  each  now  has. 

For  the  past  sixty  years  there  has  been  no  further  change  of  civil 
boundaries  if  we  except  the  formation,  in  1861,  of  the  City  of  Coldwater 
within  the  area  of  Coldwater  township.  Three  names  that  once  designated 
areas  in  this  county  have  disappeared,  namely.  Green,  Prairie  River  and 
Elizabeth,  and  references  to  these  names  and  the  territory  they  represented 
would  be  the  only  source  of  confusion  to  the  present  generation  in  reading 
the  records  of  the  past. 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 


CHAPTER  VTH. 

SETTLEMENT  AND  BEGINNINGS. 

Bronson. 

The  movement  of  settlers  along  the  Chicago  road  began  in  the  last 
two  years  of  the  twenties.  A  large  proportion,  perhaps,  of  those  who  went 
through  this  county  were  prospectors  for  homesteads;  that  is,  they  had  no 
definite  locality  in  mind,  but  were  merely  on  their  way  to  a  home  in  that 
vague  country  called  "  the  west,"  which  at  the  time  lay  anywhere  between 
the  Alleghany  and  the  Rocky  Mountains.  Some  had  in  mind  the  prairies 
of  Illinois,  but  even  they  sometimes  stopped  before  reaching  that  destina- 
tion by  reason  of  having  found  the  land  of  their  heart's  desire  along  the 
route.  An  iliiistration  of  this  is  presented  in  the  case  of  a  Batavia  pioneer, 
John  Bassett.  Starting  from  his  home  in  New  York  state  in  1835,  he  had 
shipped  his  goods  by  canal  and  the  lakes  to  Chicago,  and  he  and  fan-rily 
came  overland  by  wagon,  his  purpose  being  to  settle  in  Illinois.  But  while 
spending  the  night  at  the  old  "  New  York  House  "  on  the  Chicago  road,  the 
Bassetts  discovered  an  old  friend  in  the  person  of  the  wife  of  the  landlord, 
William  Reynolds,  and  instead  of  resuming  the  journey  the  next  morning, 
were  induced  to  locate  a  home  in  Branch  county.  Not  on\y  that,  but  two 
other  families  traveling  with  the  Bassetts  also  chose  to  settle  here.  It  was 
no  easy  matter  to  bring  east  the  goods  that  had  been  shipped  to  Chicago,  but 
Mr.  Bassett  adhered  to  his  detenni nation,  and,  obtaining  a  homestead  in 
section  34,  became  one  of  the  substantial  citizens  of  Batavia. 

The  first  spot  along  the  road  to  attract  the  passing  emigrants  was  the 
burr-oak  plain  in  the  northeast  quarter  of  what  is  now  Bronson  township. 
In  1828  Jabe  Bronson,  a  Connecticut  shipwright  who  had  turned  pioneer,  in 
the  course  of  his  wandering  through  southern  Michigan  found  the  attrac- 
tions of  this  place  too  strong  to  resist,  and  remained  here  long  enough  to 
become  identified  with  history  as  the  first  settler  and  the  first  official  of 
Branch  county.  There  are  no  records  to  indicate  the  exact  motives  that 
caused  Mr.  Bronson  to  locate  where  he  did,  and  with  such  a  character  the 
ijeauty  of  the  country  and  its  location  along  the  Chicago  road  may  have 
fulfilled  all  the  conditions  that  would  satisfy  his  restless  nature.  The  fact 
that  he  made  a  taverji  of  his  log  house  and  accommodated  there  some  of  the 
first  emigrants  who  passed  through  the  county  is  itself  sufficient  reason  for 
his  location.  He  had  spent  the  summer  of  1827  in  raising  a  crop  in  St. 
Joseph  county,  and  thus  had  time  to  pick  out  what  he  beheved  the  most 
eligible  site  for  a  home  and  place  of  business. 


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43  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

By  Sqjtember,  1830,  six  families  had  settled  on  Branson's  Prairie. 
This  is  on  the  authority  of  the  late  Wales  Adams,  who  passed  through  that 
locality  at  that  date,  and  who  named  the  heads  of  the  families  as  follows: 
Seth  Dunham,  who  was  then  supervisor  of  Green  township;  Jabe  Bronson, 
who  besides  acting  as  landlord  was  the  justice  of  the  peace;  John  J.  Rich- 
ardson, constable  and  collector;  Samuel  Smith,  who  had  come  in  1829  and 
was  by  trade  a  cooper,  ahhough  owning  a  farm  and  engaging  in  its  duties 
as  nearly  all  the  pioneers  did ;  Jeremiah  Tillotson,  who  had  located  there  in 
the  spring  of  1829  and  become  a  competitor  of  Jabe  Bronson  as  inn-keeper, 
and  whose  position  in  the  community  is  evidenced  by  his  election  as  the  first 
sui>ervisor  of  Prairie  River  township ;  and  Samuel  Haslet. 

This  community  was  the  nucleus  of  Bronson  village.  Already  in  1829 
a  postoffice  had  been  established  in  the  house  of  Jabe  Bronson.  In  1833 
came  David  and  AJonzo  Waterman,  and  in  part  of  the  building  which  they 
erected  on  the  east  side  of  the  present  village  they  placed  a  small  stock  of 
such  things  as  a  pioneer  community  would  buy,  and  thus  inaugurated  the 
commercial  side  of  the  settlement.  It  seems  that  these  men  might  well  be 
given  the  honor  of  founding  the  village  of  Bronson,  for  they  made  the 
original  plat  of  the  village,  to  which  they  gave  the  name  "  York,"  This 
name  was  changed  to  Bronson  by  the  same  legislative  act  which  gave  the 
name  of  the  first  settler  to  the  township. 

At  this  point  it  is  not  our  purpose  to  give  in  detail  the  history  of  Bronson 
village,  but  rather  to  indicate  the  extension  of  settlement  with  the  Chicago 
road  as  the  central  axis  and  directing  force.  Jabe  Bronson  moved  away 
about  1836.  and  his  log  tavern  was  occupied  soon  after  by  E,  L.  Rose,  wlio 
had  come  from  Niagara  county,  New  Y'ork,  and  who  in  1838  built  the  well 
known  "  Rose  House,"  which  stood  on  the  north  side  of  Chicago  street.  In 
1837.  on  the  south  side  of  Chicago  street,  and  a  short  distance  west  of  Rug- 
gles  street,  Mr.  James  Ruggles  built  a  frame  house  in  which  he  lived  and 
kept  public  house  for  sixteen  years. 

In  the  meanwhile  many  other  historic  settlements  bad  been  made  along 
the  great  road  in  Bronson  town.  To  describe  one  of  the  most  important  of 
them  no  quotation  could  be  so  apt  as  one  drawn  from  the  oft-quoted  histori- 
cal sketch  prepared  by  Wales  Adams  for  the  Branch  Countv  Directory  of 
1870. 

"They  (Wales  Adams  and  Willard  Pierce)  traveled — after  stopping 
at  Bronson's  prairie  in  September,  1S70,  as  above  referred  to — through  the 
counties  of  St.  Joseph  and  Kalamazoo  and  saw  many  beautiful  and  unoccu- 
pied locations;  but  unaccustomed  to  agricultural  pursuits  and  country  h"fe, 
they  knew  not  in  what  business  to  engage.  After  much  reflection  they  con- 
cluded to  retrace  their  steps.  Accordingly,  about  the  first  of  October,  they 
left  Prairie  Ronde  in  the  morning,  followed  the  trail  through  Nottawa  and 
reached  the  Chicago  trail  about  an  hour  after  sunset,  five  miles  west  of  Bron- 
son prairie  and  near  where  the  Chicago  road  now  crosses  Prairie  River." 
Here  he  states  that  the  road  to  Bronson  was  circuitous  and  difficult  to  fol- 
low— an  interesting  side  light  on  the  condition  of  the  Chicago  road  at  that 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  43 

time.  While  debating  whether  to  continue  the  journey  to  Bronson  or  to 
remain  without  shelter  in  the  wiiderness,  the  tired  travelers  discovered  the 
camp  of  an  emigrant  party  consisting  of  Resin  Holmes  and  Thomas  Holmes 
wit!)  their  families,  who  had  come  from  Marion  county,  Ohio,  and  were 
on  their  way  further  west.  Adams  and  his  friend  having  been  accommo- 
dated over  night  in  their  roadside  quarters,  "  the  next  morning,"  to  resume 
Mr.  Adams'  narrative,  "  the  parties  examined  tlie  surrounding  country,  and 
before  night  it  was  stipulated  tliat  Pierce  and  Adams  should  build  a  sawmill 
where  the  Chicago  trail  at  that  time  crossed  Prairie  river,  and  that  the 
Holmeses  should  settle  in  the  immediate  vicinity.  Accordingly,  in  the  course 
of  a  few  days,  Pierce  went  on  foot  to  Monroe,  where  the  land  office  was  then 
ideated,  entered  the  land,  and  returned  by  the  way  of  Detroit;  purchased  the 
mill  irons  and  shipped  them  around  the  lakes  to  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Joseph 
river,  and  from  thence  up  the  river  to  Mottville.  The  following  July  (1831) 
the  mill  was  in  operation.  Mr.  Pierce  became  dissatisfied  with  the  country 
and  with  the  business  of  making  himber,  sold  his  interest  in  the  sawmill  to 
William  A.  Kent,  and  returned  east." 

Interesting  as  is  the  story  of  origin  of  this  settlement,  there  is  httle  to 
cdimect  this  place  with  the  subsequent  history  of  the  township.  The  site 
cliosen  for  the  mill  (in  the  northwest  corner  of  section  29),  was  in  the  dense 
woods  and  low  and  swampy  groiflid  that  did  not  attract  settlers  looking  for 
farms.  The  sawmill  was  an  institution  of  great  value  to  the  settlers  for 
miles  around,  but  the  dam  was  considered  a  nuisance  and  after  it  was  swept 
away  by  high  water  no  attempt  was  made  to  rebuild.  "  Adams  Mills  "  was 
llie  |5lace  at  which  Bishop  Chase  stopped  over  night  and  where  he  received 
tlie  information  which  led  him  to  settle  in  Gilead.  The  Bishop  mentions  the 
landlord  Judson,  who  had  come  from  New  York  state  in  the  fall  of  1831 
and  had  established  a  tavern  at  this  point  maittly  for  the  accommodation  of 
those  employed  at  the  mill.  The  Bishop  also  held  services  here,  to  wh-ich 
nil  the  settlers  came. 

At  the  Judson  House  was  established  the  Prairie  River  postoffice  in 
1832,  with  Judson  as  the  first  postmaster,  followed  by  William  A.  Kent.  The 
office  was  discontinued  on  the  completion  of  the  Lake  Shore  Railroad  tlirougb 
this  locality. 

Yet  another  instance  may  l)e  related  of  how  one  thing  leads  to  another 
ill  the  settlement  of  a  new  country.  In  the  winter  of  1S31-32  there  arrived 
at  the  Adams  mill  from  the  state  of  New  York  a  man  named  Alfred  I* 
Diiggs,  Without  independent  means  and  seeking  employment,  he  obtained 
a  place  with  Mr.  Adams  as  sawyer  in  the  mill.  He  was  ambitious  to  buikl 
;iiid  ojjerate  a  mill  on  his  own  account,  and  assisted  by  Mr.  Adams  as  security 
he  bought  the  necessary  material  at  Detroit,  he  had  if  shipped  to  Mottville, 
as  Adams  and  Pierce  had  previously  done,  and  from  there  was  brought  by 
ox  team  and  wagon  to  Branch  county.  The  location  selected  for  this  enter- 
pn,sc  was  on  Swan  creek  in  the  northeast  corner  of  section  17.  a  short  dis- 
tance north  of  the  present  line  of  the  Lake  Shore  Railroad.  The  mill  was 
limit,   and   its   operation   gave   anodier   industry   to   Bronson   township.      In 


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44  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

June,  1836,  the  property  was  sold  to  Jonathan  and  Samuel  Holmes.  These 
men  were  from  the  state  of  New  Hampshire.  Samuel  never  became  a  resi- 
dent of  this  county.  Jonathan  was  one  of  the  best  known  of  Bronson 
pioneer  citizens.  In  September,  1837,  he  brought  his  family  to.his  new  loca- 
tion in  this  county,  the  mill  in  the  meantime  having  been  run  by  his  brother- 
in-law,  David  Taggart.  After  much  delay  he  finally  completed  and  had 
ready  for  operation  in  1839  the  first  grist  mill  in  the  township.  For  thirty 
years  the  Holmes  mill  ground  corn  and  wheat  for  settlers  in  all  the  surround- 
ing country.  As  an  institution  in  the  development  of  the  country  its  im- 
portance is  clear.  Early  settlers  everywhere  have  had  to  contend  with  that 
paramount  need  of  getting  bread-stuff,  and  when  it  was  necessary  to  go  long 
distances,  over  almost  impassable  roads,  with  a  load  of  corn  or  wheat,  be 
obliged  to  wait  at  the  mill  several  days  and  nights  for  their  "turn,"  the 
entire  trip  often  consuming  a  week  or  more  of  time,  it  is  easy  to  comprehend 
how  essentia!  such  a  mill  as  that  just  described  was  to  rapid  settlement. 

By  the  census  of  1837  Bronson  township  contained  635  inhabitants, 
ranking  second  among  the  townships  of  the  county.  But  it  must  be  remem- 
bered that  at  this  date  Bronson  township  incUided  the  territory  from  which 
have  since  been  formed  Mattesou  and  NoTjle  townships.  With  this  modifi- 
cation the  population  is  clearly  not  so  concentrated  as  would  otherwise  be 
supposed.  Bronson's  prairie,  of  course,  was  the  central  and  largest  group, 
but  as  just  indicated  there  were  other  centralizing  points,  and  more  important 
stii!,  there  was  a  gradual  extension  of  population  over  all  the  available  terri- 
tory. This  extension  can  only  be  stated  in  general  terms.  Only  the  "high 
lights  "  of  settlement  can  be  portrayed  in  a  work  that  must  stop  far  short  of 
being  encyclopedic  and  at  the  same  time  tedious. 

Bethel. 

Since  we  have  taken  the  Chicago  road  as  the  central  theme  in  our  nar- 
rative of  the  settlement  and  growth  of  Branch  county,  and  having  begun 
with  Bronson  prairie  as  the  chronological  starting  point  of  this  narrative, 
it  will  prove  not  uninteresting  to  pursue  the  subject  in  like  manner,  consid- 
ering the  townships  through  the  center  of  the  county  successively  from  west 
to  east. 

Going  east  from  Bronson  the  Chicago  road  next  enters  the  town  of 
Bethel,  passing  through  the  northwest  corner.  Since  so  much  emphasis 
has  been  placed  on  routes  of  travel  as  factors  in  the  development  of  this 
county,  it  is  preliminary  to  the  following  paragraphs  to  state  that  Bethel 
township  had  two  other  roads  that  influenced  early  settlement.  One  was  the 
old  Indian  road  already  mentioned,  running  from  Adams  mill  along  Prairie 
river  across  the  southwest  corner  of  Bethel  township.  The  other  was  the 
state  road,  authorized  by  the  legislature  in  March,  1S36,  and  running  centrally 
across  the  county  from  north  to  south  toward  Fort  Wayne,  Indiana.  This 
road,  however,  was  not  immediately  constructed,  and  did  not  become  a 
large   factor  in  the  very  early  settlement  of  the  south  part  of  the  county. 


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HISTO'RY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  45 

It  runs  along  the  eastern  Lx^rder  of  the  town  of  Bethel,  and  when  built  be- 
came a  route  much  traveled  by  immigrants. 

As  to  the  original  topography  of  this  township,  it  has  been  stated  that 
the  timber  lands  and  the  burr-oak  openings  were  about  of  eqvial  extent,  so 
that  its  attractiveness  to  early  settlers  would  compare  favorably  with  that 
of  other  townships.  When  the  process  of  settlement  was  practically  com- 
plete, the  population  of  Bethel  was  equal  to  that  of  any  of  the  townshipis 
except  those  containing  villages  or  cities.  None  the  less,  Bethel  township  re- 
ceiA'cd  the  smallest  proportion  of  the  early  settlers  of  all  the  townships  trav- 
ersed by  the  Chicago  road.  This  is  shown  by  the  figures  of  the  census  of 
T837.  which  gave  Bethel  (or  Elizabeth  as  it  was  still  called)  township  only 
177  inhabitants.     An  outline  of  Bethel  beginnings  may  be  briefly  given. 

The  article  by  Wales  Adams  already  quoted  tells  of  Bethel's  first  settler. 
"A  Mr.  Snow  (EJeazer  Snow)  boarded  with  Mr.  Tillotson  {at  Bronson  in 
tS^o),  and  was  cultivating  a  patch  of  corn  and  potatoes  without  a  fence, 
alxjut  three  miles  east  of  Bronscwi,  at  a  place  now  called  '  Snow  Prairie.'  " 
This  was  the  first  improvement  commenced  in  Bethel,  and  likewise  gave  to  the 
locality  the  name  it  has  ever  since  borne.  This  first  settler  is  thus  honored 
more  by  accident  of  time  and  circumstance  rather  than  as  a  builder.  He  was 
of  the  restless,  wandering  sort,  and  in  the  fall  of  1831  sold  out  his  claims  and 
improvements  to  Moses  Olmstead,  a  man  of  sturdier  mold.  It  was  at  the 
letter's  home  that  the  first  town  meeting  was  held.  Of  his  sons,  Lyman  Olm- 
sead  was  for  thirty  years  one  of  the  substantial  citizens  of  Bethel. 

In  the  following  years  other  accessions  to  the  Snow  Prairie  settlement 
were  made,  and  it  is  one  of  the  oldest  distinct  localities  in  the  county. 

The  best  farming  land  of  the  township  lay  in  the  southwest  comer,  and 
it  was  there,  along  the  Indian  road  above  mentioned,  that  the  strongest  settle- 
ment was  made.  First  of  all  are  the  names  of  the  Freeman  and  Marsh  fami- 
lies. They  increase  the  list  of  strong  pioneers  that  Onondaga  coimty,  New 
York,  gave  to  Branch  county.  Having  entered  land  in  the  timbered  region 
nf  I^nawee  county,  Mr.  Isaac  Freeman,  in  the  fall  of  1834,  started  west 
by  the  Erie  Canal  and  Lake  Erie  to  Detroit,  and  then  overland  to  Ypsilanti. 
There  he  met  a  man  from  Jackson  Prairie,  Indiana,  who  convinced  him  of 
the  far  superior  advantages  of  the  burr-oak  region  over  the  timber  lands 
of  I^nawee  county.  Determined  to  see  this  country  before  settling  perma- 
nently on  his  first  claim,  Mr.  Freeman  came  on  west  to  Bronson  township, 
and  then  southeast  along  the  road  leading  to  Jackson  prairie.  The  region 
of  Bethel  and  Gilead  townships  through  which  he  passed  fulfilled  all  his  ex- 
pectations, and  he  at  once  returned  to  Ypsilanti  to  bring  on  his  familv  and 
his  goods.  The  Marsh  family,  consisting  of  the  mother  and  four  sons, 
Ebenezer,  Daniel,  Wallace  and  John,  had  accompanied  Mr.  Freeman  on  his 
prospecting  trip,  and  when  all  were  once  more  united  they  moved  into  a 
house  on  section  5  in  Gilead  township,  half  a  mile  south  of  the  Bethel  line. 
Soon  after  Mr.  Freeman  bought  land  in  section  30,  of  Bethel,  and  later  in 
section  32.  This  was  the  beginning  of  the  community  in  southwest  Bethel. 
Others  came  soon  after,  among  whom  should  be  mentioned  the  Scotchman, 


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46  HISTO'RY  OF  BRA^XH  COUNTY 

James  Bemiie,  whose  first  experiences  in  Branch  county  were  connected 
with  the  Bishop  Chase  estabhshment,  and  who  in  1836  located  on  the  south- 
east quarter  of  section  31  in  Bethel.  About  the  same  time  the  families  of  Mc- 
Millan, McWilliams  and  Olds  located  in  this  vicinity.  Mrs.  Margaret  Mc- 
Millan and  sons,  Stephen  and  James,  bought  land  in  sections  29  and  30,  near 
Prairie  river,  building  their  house  on  what  was  known  as  the  Bronson  road, 
a  short  distance  north  of  the  section  line.  Philander  Olds  bought  a  small 
plat  of  land  in  section  29,  and  had  a  cooper  shop  there  several  years.  Ebenezer 
Green  and  sons,  Amos  and  Silas  S..  were  other  accessions  to  this  settlement, 
their  land  being  on  section  30. 

A  sudden  illness  was  the  cause  that  deprived  the  state  of  Illinois  of  a 
party  of  settlers  and  gave  them  to  north  Bethel.  Daniel  Smead,  at  the 
head  of  his  family  of  eleven  persons,  had  halted  for  the  night  at  the  Taylor 
Tavern,  and  while  there  was  prostrated  by  a  disease  which  precluded  the 
possibility  of  further  progress.  It  was  in  the  month  of  November,  1835,  that 
the  party  stopped  there,  and  being  compelled  to  spend  the  rest  of  the  winter 
there,  the  sons  spent  the  time  in  prospecting  ateut  the  surrounding  country 
and  were  so  pleased  that  they  determined  to  locate  permanently  instead  o£ 
continuing  the  journey  to  Illinois.  The  father,  on  recovering  from  his 
illness,  was  brought  to  the  same  way  of  thinking,  and  early  the  next  vear 
they  entered  a  large  tract  of  land  in  sections  3,  4  and  9,  of  Bethel  township. 
Two  of  the  sons,  Morgan  L.  and  Lyman  Smead,  lived  there  nearly  half  a 
century. 

By  the  state  road  from  Coldwater  there  came  into  the  eastern  sections 
of  the  township  the  families  of  Heman  Lake.  Origen  Bingham.  Lemuel 
Bingham,  Adam  Bower,  Thomas  Judson,  Lyman  Seymour,  Timothy  Colby, 
Job  Devol  and  Otis  Davis,  all  being  from  Erie  county.  New  York,  and 
coming  to  this  county  in  1S36.  Most  of  them  settled  in  section  25,  about  the 
Bethel  postoffice  neighborhood,  and  all  had  their  homes  adjacent  to  the  state 
road. 

It  has  been  stated  that  at  the  census  of  1837  there  were  177  persons  in 
Bethel  township.  It  is  likely  that  the  township  officers  elected  at  the  first 
town  meeting,  held  in  the  spring  of  the  same  year,  would  fairly  represent 
the  citizenship  at  that  time,  and  for  that  reason  their  names  are  given,  as 
follows :  Elijah  Thomas,  David  M.  Clark,  Silas  S.  Green,  Isaac  Freernan, 
David  Cummings,  Ebenezer  Green,  Daniel  Smead,  Moses  Olmstead,  Jr.' 
Lauriston  Smead,  Stephen  McMillan,  Morgan  Smead.  Phillip  Olmstead  Mor- 
gan Johnston,  O:  Dickinson,   Samuel  Handy,  James  Thurston. 

Batavia. 

In  October,  1837.  Batavia  township  had  357  inhabitants.  When  one 
considers  the  position  of  this  township  both  with  reference  to  the  Chicago 
road  which  runs  for  four  miles  across  its  southeast  corner,  and  to  the  village 
of  Branch'  which  lay  close  to  the  east  line  of  Batavia,  it  will  be  possible  to  judge 
beforehand  about  where  this  population  of  1837  was  largely  located.     Topog- 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  47 

raphy  also  played  its  part  in  the  shaping  of  settlement.  Mill  creek  running 
from  northeast  to  southwest  gave  a  strip  of  low  land  along  its  banks  in  the 
central  portion  of  the  township.  Between  this  strip  and  the  line  of  the 
Chicago  road  was  the  oak-openings  land,  which  seems  to  have  been  favored 
most  in  the  settlement. 

In  the  northwest  corner  of  section  25,  on  the  north  side  of  the  Chicago 
road,  Timothy  R.  Wallace,  in  1832,  established  the  first  public  house  in  this 
township.  Five  years  later  it  was  purchased  by  Leonard  Taylor,  a  New 
York  state  settler,  and  under  his  ten  years'  management  became  known  far 
and  wide  as  the  "  Taylor  House,"  and  still  later  as  the  "  Batavia  House." 
During  the  twenty  years  before  the  coming  of  the  railroad,  thousands  of  emi- 
grants must  have  stopped  there,  and  in  many  ways  it  was  a  part  oif  the 
pioneer  life. 

Even  more  noted  was  the  "  New  York  House."  a  log  tavern  on  section 
■^3  on  the  south  side  of  the  Chicago  road,  built  in  1833  by  Jeremiah  Tillotson, 
the  first  supervisor  of  Prairie  River  township.  About  a  year  later  the  house 
and  tlie  farm  were  sold  to  the  Reynolds  family,  who  had  come  from  Genesee 
county,  New  York.  Tliis  family,  so  long  identified  with  this  portion  of  the 
county,  consisted  of  the  father,  Alpheus,  and  his  sons,  Alpheus,  William, 
Lewis,  Jacob  and  John.  The  "  New  York  House  "  had  the  distinction  of 
being  a  stage  station.  A  stage  station  was  not  so  important  to  the  sur- 
rounding locality  as  a  railroad  station  of  later  date,  but  many  a  village  that 
grew  up  along  the  Chicago  road  dated  its  history  from  the  time  when  the 
,st.iges  began  making  their  over-night  halts  at  that  point.  And  for  a  time  it 
seemed  likely  that  the  "  New  York  House "  would  be  the  nucleus  of  a 
village,  for  about  a  dozen  houses  were  grouped  around  the  station.  The 
railroad  was  built,  the  stage  coach  ceased  to  arri\'e,  and  the  community  dis- 
integrated. It  is  of  interest  that  the  first  town  meeting  of  Batavia  was  held 
at  this  place,  in  1836. 

The  next  important  settlement  was  made  at  the  east  side  of  the  town- 
ship. In  the  southwest  corner  of  section  24,  Abel  Olds  settled  in  1834. 
His  brother,  Martin  Olds,  one  of  the  most  prominent  of  the  early  settlers, 
came  in  June  of  that  year.  He  journeyed  hither  from  Ohio,  and  passing 
through  Coldwater  halted  at  the  Wallace  House  already  mentioned.  Here 
his  family  remained  until  he  had  completed  his  land  entries,  which  were  made 
in  the  oak-openings  of  sections  13  and  14.  His  house  was  built  at  the 
southwest  comer  of  section  13.  Martin  Olds  became  the  first  supervisor 
of  this  township,  and  was  later  probate  judge  of  the  county. 

John  H.  Stephens,  one  of  the  early  sheriffs  of  Branch  county,  also  settled 
on  section  14  about  a  year  after  Mr.  Olds,  his  farm  being  located  along  the 
state  road.     Another  neighbor  of  Mr.  Olds  was  Allen  Stoddard. 

Tliere  was  soon  a  settler  on  every  section  of  the  land  south  and  east 
of  Mill  creek.  The  circumstances  connected  with  the  settlement  of  John 
Bassett  on  section  34  have  been  recounted.  In  1835  the  first  blacksmith 
shop  in  the  town  was  established  in  section  2S,  its  proprietor  being  John 
Woodruff.     In  the  same  section,  on  Mil!  creek,  was  located,   in   1836,  the 


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48  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

first  sawmill  of  the  township,  long  known  as  the  "  Woodard  Mill."  It  was 
built  by  Alphens,  William  and  John  Reynolds,  but  was  later  owned  by 
Samuel  Woodard,  hence  its  name.  Here,  too,  was  the  site  of  a  boom  town, 
"  Lawtonville,"  whose  location  was  described  as  beautiful  and  whose  lots 
were  sold  in  the  east  to  any  credulous  purchaser  who  was  willing  to  take  a 
well  executed  village  plat  as  evidence  of  a  flourishing  village. 

In  1836  Benjamin  Olmstead  and  Philo  Porter  located  on  section  27.  The 
latter  served  two  terms  as  sheriff  of  the  county.  In  1838  another  tavern  was 
opened  along  the  road,  in  section  34,  by  Sainuel  H.  Gary,  a  settler  of  that 
year  from  Ithaca,  New  York.  He  also  gave  the  name  to  Gary's  Lake,  and 
when  the  government  consented  to  the  estabHshment  of  a  postoffice  in  this 
town  in  1840,  he  became  first  postmaster.  On  the  building  of  the  railroad 
the  office  was  moved  and  became  the  central  institution  of  the  little  hamlet 
since  known  as  Batavia.  The  office  was-kept  in  another  of  the  Chicago  road 
hostelries,  the  "  Dudley  House,"  which  had  been  built  by  Albert  Dudley. 

That  the  sections  just  mentioned  contained  the  bulk  of  the  early  popu- 
lation, finds  additional  proof  in  the  fact  that  when,  in  1835,  ^^^  citizens 
decided  they  needed  a  school  they  built  the  first  one  in  section  13.  A  year 
later  the  site  was  changed  to  a  location  on  the  Chicago  road  in  section  27. 
The  second  district,  organized  in  the  winter  of  1836-37,  had  its  building  on 
section  25,  the  land  being  donated  by  Timothy  R,  Wallace. 

The  names  of  the  first  settlers  already  mentioned  find  repetition  in  the 
record  of  the  first  town  meeting  of  Batavia,  held  in  April,  1S36.  The  fol- 
lowing are  the  men  who  were  chosen  at  that  meeting  to  act  as  officials  of  the 
township :  Alphens  Reynolds,  Martin  Olds,  J.  H.  Stephens,  Jabe  Bronson 
(who  hved  in  Batavia  after  leaving  Bronson),  Samuel  Woodard,  L.  Taylor, 
Abel  Olds,  Morgan  Smead,  Shirlock  Cook.  Amasa  Miller,  T.  R.  Wallace, 
James  L.  Young,  Ira  Gifford,  George  D.  Babbet,  Horace  Field,  John  Bas- 
sett,  John  M.  Chapin,  Moses  Olmstead,  Benjamin  Parker,  John  Woodruff. 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 


CHAPTER  IX. 
SETTLEMENT  AND  BEGINNINGS  (CONTINUED). 

COLDWATER    ToWNSIIIP. 

When  the  census  of  1837  was  taken,  Branch  county  had  ten  townships. 
Of  these  Cbldwater  was  by  much  the  most  populous.;  indeed,  it  contained 
nearly  a  fourth  of  the  entire  population  of  the  county.  That  ratio  has  been 
maintained  practically  throughout  the  subsequent  seventy  years.  Approxi- 
mately, a  quarter  of  the  entire  population  of  Branch  county  now  live  in 
Coldwater  township,  including  Coldwater  city. 

Coldwater  township  did  not  receive,  the  first  settlers  of  Branch  county. 
This  is  a  circumstance  retjuiring  some  attempt  at  explanation.  It  might 
ha\-e  been  an  accident  of  history.  But  when  we  consider  that  the  west- 
bound emigrants  saw  the  beautiful  plain  known  as  Coldwater  Prairie  before 
they  reached  Bronson's  Prairie,  it  is  pertinent  to  ask  why  the  nucleus  of  the 
county's  settlement  was  formed  at  Bronson,  that  Jabe  Bronson's  house  was 
the  first  civic  center,  rather  than  on  Coldwater  prairie. 

Major  Abraham  Edwards,  of  Kalamazoo,  who  went  along  the  Chicago 
trail  in  August,  1828,  stated  that  on  the  site  of  the  village  of  Coldwater  was 
an  Indian  trading  post  kept  by  Beaubien  and  that  on  the  prairie  adjacent 
was  a  large  Indian  settlement.  The  same  traveler  found  Bronson  settled  on 
his  prairie,  and  both  Hillsdale  county  on  the  east,  and  St.  Joseph  county 
on  the  west  had  begun  to  be  settled.  But  the  existence  of  a  large  Indian 
reserve  in  central  Branch  county  and  the  presence  of  a  number  of  Indians  in 
)Kissession  of  one  of  the  most  eligible  regions  along  the  Chicago  road,  would 
seem  to  be  sufficient  explanation  of  the  fact  that  no  settlement  had  yet  Ijcen 
attempted  there. 

At  the  Chicago  treaty  of  August,  1821,  the  Indians  of  southern  Mich- 
igan ceded  to  the  government  all  their  lands  except  five  comparatively  small 
reservations,  on  which  it  was  the  policy  of  the  government  to  collect  the 
various  bands  and  retain  them  until  the  convenient  season  should  arrive  for 
removing  all  the  tribes  to  the  west.  The  "  Mick-ke-saw-be  "  reservation, 
which  was  one  of  the  five,  was  located  wholly  in  Branch  county.  It  was  six 
miles  square,  and  comprised  the  eastern  two-thirds  of  what  is  now  Coldwater 
township,  and  the  western  one-third  of  the  present  Quincy  township.  How- 
ever, in  compliance  with  the  request  of  the  Indians,  the  west  boundary  of 
the  reserve  was  run  sixty  rods  west  of  the  appropriate  section  line  in  Cold- 
water  township,  and  the  same  was  true  of  the  east  boundary  in  Quincy 
township. 

Thus  the  greater  part  of  the  present  Coldwater  township  was  an  Indian 


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60  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

reserve,  until  it  was  ceded  to  the  United  States  by  a  treaty  of  September, 
1827.  Notwithstanding  this  treaty,  the  Indians  did  not  at  once  quit  their  old 
reserve  in  this  county,  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  their  presence  acted  as 
a  retarding  influence  on  settlement  for  at  least  a  year  or  so  after  the  treaty 
of  1827. 

But  with  a  population  of  960  in  October,  1837,  Coldwater  township 
must  have  been  settled  very  rapidly  between  1830  and  that  date.  In  the  other 
townships  we  have  indicated  the  focal  points  of  settlement  and  the  general 
directions  of  growth.  In  Coldwater  township  the  prominent  facts  are  con- 
cerned with  the  county  seat  at  Branch  and  with  the  gradually  overshadowing 
importance  of  Coldwater  village.  Therefore,  the  story  of  beginnings  in 
Coldwater  township  becomes  the  story  of  the  origin  of  Coldwater  City, 
around  which  the  rest  of  the  township  extends  as  a  fringe  to  the  central 
coinmercia)  and  social  area. 

A  little  more  than  seventy-five  years  ago,  not  a  habitation  nor  institu- 
tion of  white  man  existed  on  the  ground  now  covered  by  Coldwater  city. 
The  Chicago  trail,  entering  at  the  center  of  the  east  line  of  the  township, 
continued  a  distance  of  one  mile  over  the  gravelly  drift  ridges  that  were 
once  the  east  shore  of  a  large  lake,  and  then  descended,  at  what  is  known  as 
the  Fisk  schoolhouse,  to  a  plain  of  burr-oak  openings,  almost  perfectly  level, 
and  stretching  to  the  west  for  a  distance  of  over  three  miles  until  the  trough 
of  the  Coldwater  river  and  the  chain  of  marl  lakes  is  reached.  Along  the  trail 
a  small  band  of  Indians  still  had  their  homes,  and  there  was  an  Indian  trading 
post  near  the  east  side  of  the  prairie,  and  another  on  the  ground  now  occupied 
by  the  cemetery.  From  the  point  where  the  trail  came  to  the  level,  a  ridge  of 
gentle  ascent  passed  around  the  northwest,  while  to  the  southwest  a  more 
prominent  acclivity,  since  known  as  the  Warner  hills,  seemed  to  guard  and 
give  direction  to  the  little  stream  that  wound  at  its  northern  base. 

At  this  point,  at  the  eastern  edge  of  Coldwater  prairie,  there  settled,  in 
1830,  Abram  F.  Bolton  and  John  Morse,  on  the  east  part  of  section  23.  This 
was  "  university  land,"  and  had  not  yet  come  into  market,  consequently  these 
men,  and  those  who  became  their  neighbors,  were  "  squatters."  They  built  a 
log  cabin  of  two  rooms,  which  they  opened  to  the  use  of  the  traveling  public 
as  the  lirst  hotel  in  the  vicinity.  Here  also  was  held  the  first  town  meeting  of 
Coldwater  township,  and  the  "  Morse  Tavern  "  belongs  among  the  institu- 
tions of  early  Branch  county.  Another  well  known  family  that  settled  on 
these  university  lands  east  of  Coldwater  were  the  Arnolds,  who  located  there 
in  1833,  and  who  soon  after  became  identified  prominently  with  Quincy  town- 
ship. 

But  this  was  not  the  only  event  of  that  year  of  beginnings,  1830.  Lem- 
uel Bingham  put  up  his  cabin  near  the  house  of  the  Indian  trader,  Phineas 
Bonner,  also  near  the  east  side  of  the  prairie,  and  there  established  a  black- 
smith shop,  at  which  many  an  emigrant's  horses  were  shod  and  wagons 
mended. 

In  another  important  event  of  that  year,  Mr,  A.  F.  Bolton  was  con- 
cerned.    Although,  as  stated,  he  had  located  with  Morse  at  the  east  end 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  51 

of  the  prairie  when  he  brought  his  family  here  in  1830,  in  1829  he  had  been 
over  this  ground  and  had  purchased  a  tract  of  land  on  the  east  side  of  Cold- 
water  river  where  the  Chicago  road  crossed  the  stream.  In  the  summer  of 
1830  the  three  commissioners  appointed  to  locate  the  spot  where  the  county 
seat  should  stand  when  the  county  was  organized  came  to  transact  their  busi- 
ness in  Branch  county.  Mr.  Bolton  at  once  became  an  interested  party,  and 
explained  convincingly  the  eligibility  of  his  land  for  the  purposes  intended. 
As  one  looks  back  from  the  present,  it  seems  that  the  commissioners  exercised 
good  judgment  in  locating  the  site  of  the  future  court  house  on  the  east  bank 
of  Coldwater  river  near  where  the  bridge  is  located;  for  it  must  be  remem- 
bered that  the  village  of  Coldwater  had  not  yet  begun,  and  few  spots  along 
tjie  Chicago  road,  and  in  the  central  area  of  the  county,  offered  more  advan- 
tages than  the  one  selected.  But  the  commissioners  had  failed  to  be  "  sworn 
in  "  before  proceeding  with  the  exeaition  of  their  duties,  and  for  that  reason 
iheir  action  in  "  sticking  the  stake  "  on  Mr.  Bolton's  land  was  invalid.  Had 
their  work  been  legal,  the  history  of  the  Branch  county  seat  and  of  Cold- 
water  city  might  have  been  different. 

This  event  leads  us  to  the  brief  recital  of  the  ephemeral  existence  of  the 
village  of  "  Masonville,"  which  long  since  became  an  empty  name,  and  whose 
site  many  years  ago  was  absorbed  in  the  growing  city  of  Coldwater.  Mason- 
ville was  the  name  given,  probably  by  Mr.  Bolton,  to  the  prospective  village 
that  would  inevitably  grow  up  around  the  county  seat.  Furthermore,  at  the 
spot  now  occupied  by  the  cemetery,  there  had  been  for  some  years  an  Indian 
trailing  post,  and  as  early  as  :83i  Roland  Root  and  James  B.  Stuart  were 
engaged  in  merchandising  there,  principally  with  the  Indians.  About  the 
(iame  time  Mr.  Bolton  had  procured  the  services  of  two  carpenters,  and  just 
east  of  the  river,  on  his  land,  had  a  frame  hotel  constructed.  The  "  BoHon 
House,"  according  to  the  authority  of  the  late  Dr.  W.  B.  Sprague,  was  kept 
for  awhile  by  such  well  known  men  as  EJisha  Warren  and  Harvey  Warner, 
and  in  18.33  Passed  into  the  hands  of  James  E.  Stuart,  who  was  a  very  popu- 
lar landlord.  Shortly  after  his  death  the  hotel  burned,  and  so  far  as  known 
that  was  the  last  page  in  the  history  of  Masonville,  which  had  once  aspired 
to  be  the  county  seat  and  commercial  center  of  Branch  county. 

For  the  time  being  the  western  side  of  the  township  was  in  the  lead. 
Ill  1830  John  Toole,  the  schoolmaster  and  pioneer  of  Eronson,  had  begun 
the  construction  of  a  sawmill  on  the  west  branch  of  the  Coldwater,  on  sec- 
tion 30,  at  the  site  of  the  historic  Black  Hawk  mills.  The  work  progressed 
slowly,  and  during  the  same  year  Seth  Dunham,  John  Allen  and  others  took 
a  share  in  the  enterprise.  Toole  became  discouraged  and  left,  but  the  others 
had  the  mill  in  operation  by  the  spring  of  183 1,  Mr.  Allen  being  in,  charge. 
This  was  the  first  sawmill  in  the  county,  and  from  it  the  settlement  at  Cold- 
water  obtained  its  lumber  for  several  years. 

Village  of  Branch. 
Half  a  mile  north  of  this  mill  site  the  land  rises  rather  abruptly  from 
the  river  and   forms   a   well   defined  eminence.     On  this  broad  surface  the 


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52  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

three  commissioners  appointed  imder  an  act  of  March  4,  1831,  formally 
located  the  county  seat  of  Branch  county.  Mr.  Bolton  tried  without  effect 
to  prevail  on  them  to  accept  the  original  but  invalid  location  of  Masonville. 
No  settlement  or  improvements  had  been  made  on  the  spot  thus  designated 
for  the  county  seat ;  but  no  censure  can  attach  to  the  commissioners  on  that 
account.  Nothing  resembling  a  village  had  yet  appeared  in  this  vicinity; 
and  their  choice  not  being  circumscribed  except  in  a  general  way,  the  com- 
missioners selected  what  at  that  time  must  have  seemed  the  most  suitable 
spot  for  the  civic  center  of  the  county. 

This  action  of  the  commissioners  gave  official  cause  for  the  existence  of 
the  "  village  of  Branch."  There  yet  remained  two  years  before  the  seijarate 
organization  of  the  county  when  this  county  seat  should  really  become  a  place 
for  the  transaction  of  county  business;  but  men  of  judgment  were  on  hand 
to  make  the  most  of  the  opportunity  thus  presented.  EJisha  Warren  and 
others  purchased  all  the  land  about  the  site,  and  at  once  laid  out  a  village. 

The  fortunes  of  the  village  are  soon  told.  A  few  of  the  old  pioneers 
lived  there  and  were  identified  with  the  only  years  of  prosperity  the  village 
had.  Seth  Dunham,  the  first  county  treasurer  and  one  of  the  proprietors 
of  the  mill  near  by,  was  one.  Another  was  Harvey  Warner,  who,  born  in 
Warren  county.  New  York,  in  1809,  had  come  from  Monroe  county,  that 
state,  by  the  Chicago  road  to  Coldwater  prairie  in  18:30,  and  in  1832  was 
appointed  the  first  postmaster,  the  office  being  located  in  Branch.  A  store 
was  opened  in  1833  ^Y  ^-  ^-  Pa^ton,  a  distillery  was  put  in  operation  about 
1835.  and  a  schoolhouse  was  erected  that  served  not  only  its  essential  pur- 
pose but  also  for  religious  worship  and  was  the  first  court  house  of  Brancli 
county.  In  the  summer  of  1837,  in  accordance  with  previous  action  of  the 
board  of  supervisors,  a  jail  was  built.  Branch  county's  prisoners  up  to  that 
time  having  been  detained  in  the  St.  Joseph  county  jail.  Five  hundred 
dollars  was  the  sum  set  aside  for  the  construction  of  this  building.  It  was 
thirty  feet  square,  built  of  hewn  logs,  and  while  the  lower  floor  was  utilized 
as  a  jail,  the  upper  part  was  used  for  court  purposes.  This  was  the  only 
public  building  that  Branch  county  had  until  the  construction  of  the  first 
court  house  of  Coldwater. 

The  village  of  Branch  was  also  the  home  of  the  first  newspaper  published 
in  the  county,  the  Michigan  Star,  issued  by  County  Clerk  Charles  P,  West 
for  the  first  time  in  May,  1837.  At  this  time  of  s],ieculation  and  "  wild-cat " 
business  promotion  preceding  the  great  financial  panic  of  1837,  several  efforts 
were  made  to  establish  in  Branch  a  bank,  along  the  lines  of  the  old  Cold- 
water  Bank  elsewhere  descril>ed.  The  principal  mover  in  this  enterprise, 
which  never  succeeded,  was  Joel  Burlingame,  father  of  Hon,  Anson  Bur- 
lingame,  the  statesman  and  diplomatist.  Four  or  five  years  of  the  latter's 
youth  were  spent  at  his  father's  tavern  in  Branch,  and  he  got  his  first  ac- 
quaintance with  men  and  affairs  in  the  original  county  seat. 

So  far  as  authentic  records  go,  the  above  may  be  considered  a  fair 
description  of  the  village  of  Erandi  in  the  high  tide  of  its  existence.  One 
other  institution  is  of  pregnaiit  importance  to  the  succeeding  iiarrative. 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  53 

As  already  stated,  the  water  power  of  the  west  branch  of  the  Coldwater 
was  the  first  utihzed  for  mill  purposes  in  the  county.  The  same  power  was 
used  to  turn  the  first  grist  mill  in  the  county.  The  "  Black  Hawk  "  mills 
have  been  an  institution  in  Branch  county  almost  from  the  beginning  of  its 
history.  One  of  the  first  physicians  in  the  county,  a  Dr.  Hill,  was  the  pro- 
moter of  the  enterprise,  and  it  is  probable  that  Seth  Dunham  and  others  had 
a  part  of  the  control,  and,  as  Dr.  Hill  soon  left,  they  must  have  become  sole 
proprietors.  The  mill  was  a  small  affair,  located  alongside  the  sawmill,  and 
the  stones  were  about  two  feet  in  diameter,  and  the  bolting  clotli  a  sort  of 
gauzy  cotton  fabric.  At  that  early  day  it  was  best  known  for  the  bad  qual- 
ity of  flour  it  produced.  The  date  of  construction  of  this  mill  is  usually 
given  as  1832. 

But  the  important  fact  in  connection  with  this  mill  was  explained  by 
the  late  Judge  Harvey  Warner  at  a  pioneers'  meeting  in  1884.  While  the 
rush  of  settlement  was  at  its  height,  about  1836,  several  enterprising  men, 
among  whom  was  Francis  Smith,  determined  to  establish  a  mill.  "  And 
as  the  water  power  at  Branch  was  better  than  that  where  Coombs'  mill  is 
now  situated,  they  proposed  to  Mr.  EUsha  Warren  of  Branch  to  buy  the 
half  interest  in  his  property  at  that  place  for  $75  and  then  build  the  mill  there. 
This  offer  Mr.  Warren  would  not  accept,  and  on  that  account  the  mill  was 
located  at  Coldwater.  This  was  the  death  blow  to  Branch;  and  this  transac- 
tion was  the  turn  in  the  tide  that  ended  in  the  prosperity  of  Coldwater. 
Otherwise  what  is  now  the  city  of  Coldwater  woulcl  have  remained  a  beauti- 
ful broad  field  dotted  with  elegant  farm  houses."  Perhaps  the  importance 
01  the  mill  transaction  is  overestimated  in  the  quoted  words.  But  it  is 
certain  that  the  proprietors  of  the  village  of  Branch,  by  holding  the  land 
at  high  price,  did  not  encourage  the  formation  of  an  industrial  and  business 
center  at  that  jMint,  and  this  fact  is  to  be  kept  in  mind  in  considering  the 
waning  importance  of  Branch  and  the  growlh  of  Coldwater. 

The  situation  of  the  village  of  Branch  off  the  line  of  Chicago  road  must 
also  be  considered  an  adverse  circumstance  in  its  struggle  to  become  the 
center  of  the  county.  M'hen  we  remember  that  mail  stages  began  running 
along  this  road  from  Tecumseh  to  Niles  in  1830,  and  that  travel  increased 
constantly  from  that  date,  it  is  evident  that  a  position  even  a  mile  south 
of  the  thoroughfare  was  a  detriment  to  the  fullest  development  of  the  village. 
Concerning  Elisha  Warren,  the  founder  of  the  village  of  Branch,  Caleb 
D.  Randall,  in  a  paper  read  before  the  Pioneers  in  December,  1884,  gave 
this  sketch : 

Born  in  Connecticut  in  1795,  and  died  in  1857,  he  married  Caroline 
Hanchett,  daughter  of  Joseph  Hanchett,  and  moved  to  this  county  in  1831. 
Mr.  Warren  settled  at  Branch,  where  he  purchased  five  eighty-acre  lots  and 
platted  and  established  the  village  of  Branch,  where  he  secured  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  county  seat.  In  connection  with  the  ten  years'  contest  over 
the  county  seat  the  name  of  Mr.  Warren  is  intimately  associated.  After  the 
first  location  of  the  county  seat  (at  Masonvijle)  had  failed,  new  commis- 
sioners were  appointed  in   1831,  who  located  the  county  capital  at  Branch 


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54  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

where  the  court  house  and  jai! — a  cheap  wooden  building — was  located  on 
the  fine  rise  of  ground  just  west  of  the  present  group  of  houses.  From  that 
time  until  1840  there  was  a  contest  for  the  removal  to  Coldwater,  in  which 
Mr.  Warren  took  an  active  part  and  fought  his  battle  well.  Mr.  Warren 
frequently  visited  Detroit,  the  then  seat  of  the  state  government,  to  defend 
his  county  site,  and  it  was  not  till  1840  when  the  legislature  passed  the  definite 
act  of  removal  to  Coldwater.  The  question  entered  into  politics.  The 
county  was  canvassed  for  votes.  Mr.  Warren  was  able  to  carry  the  western 
part  of  the  county  with  him,  and  he  had  much  merit  on  his  side.  First,  the 
county  seat  was  already  located  at  Branch;  second,  it  was  the  geographical 
center  of  the  county;  third,  the  site,  by  its  high  rolling  ground,  purer  water, 
drainage,  etc.,  was  better  adapted  to  a  village.  But  he  had  a  hard  battle 
when  we  recall  that  against  him  were  the  Crippens,  Spragues,  Daugherty, 
the  Hayneses,  Francis  Smith,  Cross,  Chandler,  and  a  host  like  them,  young 
vigorous  men.  It  was  not,  after  all,  the  merits  of  the  case  that  decided  the 
issue.  The  population  of  Coldwater  and  the  eastern  part  of  the  county  in- 
creased the  more  rapidly,  and  so  it  had  by  1840  votes  enough  to  secure  com- 
missioners favorable  to  the  change,  which  was  accomplished.  Mr.  Warren 
remained  and  died  at  his  post. 

I  Origin  of  Coldwateii. 

In  the  meanwhile  Coldwater  Prairie  had  become  the  seat  of  a  thriving 
population.  In  October,  1829,  when  the  first  lands  of  this  vicinity  were 
offered  for  sale,  two  brothers,  Robert  J.  and  William  H.  Cross,  obtained  a 
patent,  signed  by  President  Andrew  Jackson,  to  three-fourths  of  section  22 
in  Coldwater  township.  The  following  year  both  these  men  came  to  this 
land  and  built  a  flat-roofed  log  shanty  on  the  north  side  of  the  Chicago  road, 
a  few  rods  west  of  the  present  eastern  limits  of  the  city.  The  improvements 
they  made  became  proverbial  with  the  people  in  the  county  and  with  travelers 
who  passed  through  this  region.  This  land  was  sold  in  1835  to  James  Fisk, 
Rev.  Francis  Smith  and  William  B.  Sprague,  and  Robert  J.  Cross  then  went 
to  Illinois.  His  brother,  William  H.,  who  held  oflicial  position  in  the  first 
years  of  the  coimty,  was  at  one  time  in  the  mercantile  business  as  a  partner 
with  Silas  A.  Holbrook,  and  his  later  career  was  identified  with  St.  Joseph 
county,  where  he  died  in  1886. 

On  section  15  John  Morse  purchased  eighty  acres,  in  1830,  and  in  Jan- 
uary of  the  following  year  A.  F.  Bolton,  Robert  J.  Cross  and  Robert  H. 
Ablwtt  each  purchased  eighty  acres  of  this  section. 

On  section  21,  Joseph  Hanchett,  Jr.,  took  up  eighty  acres  in  the  fail 
of  1830.  In  1831  entries  were  made  on  this  section  by  Elisha  Warren, 
Audrain  Abbott  and  Robert  J.  Cross. 

Section  22  was  entirely  taken  upi  by  Hugh  Campbell  and  the  Cross 
brothers,  their  entries  being  dated  in  the  fall  of  1830,  and  by  Allen  Tibbits, 
who  entered  the  remaining  eighty  acres  in  June,   1830.     In  February,  1831, 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  55 

Campbell   sold   his   eighty   acres,   in  the   northwest   corner,   to   the   Crosses. 
Twenty  acres  of  this  had  been  plowed  and  sixteen  apple  trees  set  out. 

These  three  sections  comprised  the  area  on  which  the  village  of  Cold- 
water  had  its  beginnings.  The  first  entry  on  section  i6,  which  was  the  public 
school  section,  was  not  made  until  1837.  It  is  reasonable  to  suppose  that  the 
men  above  mentioned  were  on  the  ground  in  1831,  and  were  the  landed 
proprietors  most  concerned  in  the  inauguration  of  any  village  enterprise, 

Hugh  Campbell,  whose  eighty  was  located  in  the  northwest  corner  of 
section  22,  built  a  log  house  on  the  north  side  of  the  Chicago  road.  This 
was  in  1830,  and  is  accredited  with  being  the  first  dwelling  erected  on  the 
original  site  of  the  village.  It  stood  near  the  corner  of  what  is  now  Hudson 
and  Chicago  streets,  about  the  site  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  building. 

This  was  the  approximate  situation  when  the  Rev.  Allen  Tibbits  came 
along  the  Chicago  road  to  this  spot  in  the  autumn  of  1830.  An  itinerant 
Methodist  preacher,  with  headquarters  at  Plymouth,  twenty-five  miles  west 
of  Detroit,  he  was  at  this  time  a  young  man  of  twenty-six  years,  having  been 
born  in  Lyons,  New  York,  in  1S04,  The  purpose  of  his  visit  to  Coldwater 
prairie  in  1830  was  to  find  a  permanent  home,  and  when  he  returned  in  1831 
he  located,  as  above  shown,  eighty  acres  in  the  southwest  quarter  of  section 
22.  In  the  meantime  Hugh  Campbell  had  moved  from  his  residence,  and  in 
liis  rough  log  cabin,  which  was  without  a  floor,  Mr.  Titoits  made  his  first 
home.  About  the  same  time,  also,  he  must  have  purchased  this  Campbell 
eighty  (from  the  Crosses)  in  the  northwest  corner  of  section  22,  From  the 
records  above  given  and  from  what  follows,  it  is  certain  that,  in  the  year 
183 1,  the  eighty  acres  in  the  northwest  corner  of  section  22  was  owned  by 
Mr.  Tibbets,  and  the  eighty  adjoining  that  on  the  west,  in  the  northeast  cor- 
ner of  section  21,  was  owned  by  Mr,  Joseph  Hanchett. 

Mr.  Hanchett,  who  had  arrived  on  the  ground  a  few  weeks  before  Mr, 
Tibbits,  also  lived  during  the  summer  of  1831  in  the  Campbell  cabin.  These 
two  men  decided  to  establish  a  village  on  jjart  of  their  land.  To  them  be- 
longs the.  honor  of  being  called  the  founders  of  Coldwater,  Calling  in  the 
services  of  James  B.  Tompkins,  they  platted  a  village.  The  original  plat, 
signed  by  James  B.  Tompkins,  the  surveyor '( whose  son,  of  the  same  name, 
died  in  Girard  township  in  1905),  and  dated  July  29,  1831,  is  now  in  the 
register  of  deeds  ofiice  at  Centerville,  where  it  was  filed  for  record  December 
I,  1832.  This  plat  was  acknowledged  by  Allen  Tibbits  and  Joseph  Hanchett 
on  November  29,  1832.  From  these  facts  it  is  proper  to  date  the  origin  of 
Coldwater  on  July  29,  183 1,  so  that  the  city  may  in  the  year  of  this  writing 
celebrate  its  seventy-fifth  anniversary. 

The  first  name  given  to  the  village  was  "Lyons,"  assigned  by  Mr.  Tib- 
bits in  honor  of  his  birthplace  at  Lyons,  New  York,  But  in  the  following 
year  it  was  christened  Coldwater,  which  was  a  translation  of  the  Indian  name 
"Chuck-sew-ya-bish,"  by  which  the  natives  are  said  to  have  designated  the 
waters  of  the  stream  flowing  south  of  the  village. 

The  two  eighty-acre  lots  owned  respectively  by  Joseph  Hanchett  and 
Allen  Tibbits,  as  above  stated,  were  both  included  in  the  act  of  incorporation 


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66  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

of  the  viliage.  But  only  part  of  this  land  was  surveyed  into  village  lots  at 
first.  The  extent  of  the  original  village  of  Coldwater  is  easily  stated.  On  the 
west  it  was  bounded  by  what  is  now  Monroe  street ;  on  the  east  by  what  is  now 
Jefferson  street.  The  north  boundary  was  the  section  line,  or,  approximatelyj 
Church  street;  while  the  south  was  what  is  now  Washington  street.  This 
area  was  divided  into  fifty-five  numbered  lots,  each  six  rods  wide  by  twelve 
rods  deep.  The  conspicuous  features  designated  on  the  original  plat  were, 
the  Public  Square,  sixteen  rods  wide  from  east  to  west,  and  thirty  rods  long 
from  north  to  south ;  the  Chicago  street,  one  hundred  feet  wide,  a  width  that 
has  been  one  of  the  chief  charms  of  this  broad  avenue  and  a  matter  of  pride 
to  citizens;  the  other  streets  named  on  the  plat — Pearl  and  Church  streets, 
running  east  and  west,  and  Hudson  ant)  Division  streets,  north  and  south- 
were  each  four  rods  wide. 

The  manuscript  history  of  "The  Origin  of  the  City  of  Coldwater,"  by 
the  late  Dr.  WilHara  B.  Sprague,  describes  the  first  twelve  buildings  erected 
on  this  village  plat  and  which  were  standing  at  the  time  the  Doctor  came  to 
Coldwater  in  1S35. 

The  first  was  the  log  structure  put  up  by  Hugh  Campbell,  the  location 
of  which  has  already  been  mentioned. 

The  second  was  more  pretentions,  a  log  residence,  finished  and  occupied 
by  Mr.  Joseph  Hanchett  in  the  fall  of  1831.  This  stood  on  Lot  44,  a  little 
north  of  the  E.  R.  Clarke  and  Company  building,  and  on  what  is  now  Monroe 
street. 

In  1832  John  Wilson,  a  brother-in-law  of  Allen  Tibbits,  built  for  him- 
self and  family  a  frame  residence  on  Lot  41,  on  the  north  side  of  Chicago 
street  and  next  to  the  Loomis  Battery  Park.  Mr.  Wilson  was  a  carpenter 
and  joiner  by  trade. 

On  the  next  lot  east,  where  the  Episcopal  church  now  stands,  William 
McCarty  in  the  same  year  built  a  frame  house.  This  house  is  still  standing, 
externally  intact,  as  part  of  the  barn  on  the  rear  of  the  premises  of  Mrs. 
Sarah  E.  Conant,  next  east  of  the  Loomis  Battery  Park.  We  were  assured 
by  Mr.  L,  D.  Halsted  early  in  the  present  year,  1906,  that  this  is  the  oldest 
house  in  Coldwater  ever  used  as  a  dwelling.  It  still  shows  so  well  what  it 
was  originally  that  an  illustration  of  it  is  given.  Mr.  McCarty  used  his 
dwelhng  as  a  jail  during  his  service  as  sheriff. 

Where  the  Edwin  R.  Clarke  Library  building  now  stands,  Peter  Martin, 
the  first  probate  judge  of  Branch  county,  erected  in  1832  a  frame  dwelling. 

Also  in  1S32,  the  first  building  used  for  store  purposes  was  built.  It 
was  a  frame  structure,  and  stood  on  the  south  side  of  Chicago  street  just 
west  of  the  public  square,  on  part  of  the  site  now  occupied  by  the  Bovee 
block.  Silas  A.  Holbrook  and  Grover  Hibbard  had  come  here  early  in  1S32 
from  Tecumseh,  and  in  this  building  the  first  Coldwater  store  was  opened, 
the  attic  being  used  for  the  residence  of  Mr.  Holbrook  and  family. 

On  the  north  side  of  Chicago  street,  near  Hudson,  on  the'  spot  now 
occupied  by  the  Milo  Campbell  residence.  Rev.  Allen  Tibbits  erected  a  small 


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Tlie  House  occupied  in  1833  in  Coldwater  by  the  first 
Sheriff  of  the  County,  W^illiam  McCarty.  as  tome  and  jail: 
now,  1905,  the  oldest  huilding  in  Coldwater  and  part  of  a 
harn. 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  5T 

frame  house  in  1833.     Up  to  that  time  he  liad  continued  to  live  in  the  log  cabin 
built  by  Hugh  Campbell. 

On  the  west  side  of  Hudson  street,  a  short  distance  south  of  Chicago, 
Hiram  and  George  Hayden,  cabinet  makers,  put  up  two  dwellings  in  1834. 
On  the  northeast  corner  of  their  lot,  that  is,  on  Chicago  street,  they  had 
their  sliop. 

■  There  is  evidence  in  what  has  just  Ix^en  said,  that  the  proprietors  of 
Coklwater  village  were  very  miicli  in  earnest  in  promoting  the  interests  of 
their  village.  Every  encouragement  was  held  ovit  to  the  settlement  of  those 
who  would  become  factors  of  usefulness  in  the  community.  The  good  judg- 
ment of  the  founders  is  seen  in  the  fact  thai  all  of  the  settlers  just  mentioned 
became  closely  associated  with  the  affairs  of  the  village  and  county,  excepting 
only  the  Hayden  brothers,  one  of  whom  soon  died  and  the  other  moved  to  a 
farm  in  the  county. 

The  zeal  with  which  Allen  Tibbits  undertook  to  build  up  Coldwater  is 
well  shown  in  the  case  of  the  next  settler.  Matthew  Brink,  a  blacksmith,  had 
located  in  the  village  of  Branch.  Early  in  1835  he  was  induced  to  move  to 
Coldwater  by  the  gift  of  a  lot  in  the  village,  on  which  he  was  to  build  his 
home  and  have  his  shop.  This  lot  was  on  the  south  side  of  Chicago  street, 
at  the  east  edge  of  the  village,  near  the  present  Jefferson  street. 

Dr.  Sprague  mentions  three  other  buildings  that  were  on  the  village  plat 
in  1835.  One  was  a  plain  frame  house  on  the  west  side  of  Division  and 
between  the  square  and  Pearl  street,  about  where  the  Baptist  church  stands. 
On  the  east  side  of  Hudson  street,  a  little  north  of  Pearl,  was  built  the  first 
\illage  schoolhouse,'  standing  on  a  lot  also  donated  by  Mr.  Tibbits.  And  on 
the  north  side  of  Chicago  street,  just  west  of  the  public  square,  where  the 
Southern  Michigan  Hotel  now  stands,  was  a  two-story  frame  structure  still 
in  process  of  building.  Edward  Hanchett  was  building  if  for  a  tavern.  It 
remained  for  John  J.  Curtis  to  finish  it  and  open  it  to  the  public,  as  the  "Eagle 
House." 

Such  was  the  pioneer  Coldwatei-.  seen  at  a  time  when  it  was  still  possible 
tu  distinguish  the  individual  units.  In  the  men  who  were  there  in  1835  lay 
great  possibihties  for  ftiture  development;  but  still  more  in  the  group  of 
settlers  who  came  that  year.  In  that  list  would  be  found  such  names  as 
Bradley  Crippen  and  his  four  sons,  Lorenzo  D,,  Pliilo  H.,  Benjamin  and 
Rev.  Elliott  M.;  James  Fisk,  Thomas  Dougherty,  Rev.  Francis  Smith,  Dr. 
William  B.  Spragive,  Dr.  Darwin  Littlefield,  James  Haynes  and  his  sons 
John  T.,  Levi,  Harvey  and  James.  These  men,  whh  those  already  men- 
tioned, formed  the  bulk  and  sinews  of  the  community  and  were  the  real 
founders  of  the  city  of  Coldwater. 

The  developments  of  the  next  few  years  are  all  important.  The  de- 
tailed features  of  the  growth  of  Coldwater  cannot  be  noted.  The  strength  of 
its  citizenship  has  been  noted;  it  was  a  live,  enterprising  community,  with 
business  and  industrial  promise.  Alert  and  determined  to  make  the  most 
of  their  opportunities,  the  citizens  pressed  on  to  the  next  step  in  civic 
growth.     In  February,   1837,  the  legislature  passed  the  act  of  incorporation 


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68  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

for  the  village  of  CoMwater,  and  when,  pursuant  to  this  act,  the  citizens 
convened  on  the  first  Monday  of  May  at  the  "Central  Exchange,"  they  chose 
the  following  men  to  direct  the  affairs  of  the  village  during  its  first  year: 
Hon.  Hiram  Alden,  then  Branch  county's  representative  in  the  legislature, 
became  village  president;  Hiram  Shoudler,  recorder;  and  William  H.  Cross, 
Silas  A.  Holbrook,  Joseph  Hanchett.  Reuben  J.  Champion,  Harvey  War- 
ner and  John  J.  Curtis,  trustees. 

So  much  for  the  civic  community.  It  was  still  a  pioneer  village,  barely 
put  of  the  first  stages  of  individual  activity.  Organization  of  industry  and 
classification  of  pursuits  had  only  begun.  The  tilling  of  the  prairie  soil  was 
a  part  of  the  work  of  nearly  ali.  There  were  several  physicians,  whose  range 
of  duties,  however,  covered  most  of  the  county,  Dt.  William  H.  Hanchett  and 
Dr.  Hiram  Aiden  being  most  prominent ;  there  were  several  merchants,  hotel- 
keepers,  mechanics,  and  in  1837  came  the  first  lawyer.  Altogether,  the  basis 
of  village  growth  and  prosperity  was  well  laid. 

Manufacturing  received  its  first  strong  impulse  at  this  time.  It  is  not 
an  overstatement  of  the  truth  to  say  that  this  form  of  activity  was  the  vital 
element  in  Coldwater's  subsequent  growth.  Up  to  that  time  Branch,  with  the 
nearby  "Poka"  or  Black  Hawk  mills,  had  been  the  manufacturing  center  for 
lumber  and  flour. 

Of  similar  enterprises  at  Coldwater,  the  first  is  best  described  in  the 
words  of  Allen  Tibbits:  "Joseph  Hanchett  and  myself  were  the  sole  pro- 
prietors and  builders  of  the  first  grist  mill  erected  at  Coldwater.  It  con- 
sisted of  a  piece  of  an  oak  log  some  three  feet  long  set  firmly  in  the  ground 
with  a  hollow  on  the  top  and  in  the  shape  of  a  bowl,  hacked  and  burnt 
smoothly  out  for  a  nether  millstone.  It  would  hold  a  peck.  For  the  upi>er 
stone  a  large  piece  of  timber  made  roughly  in  a  pestle  form  was  suspended 
from  a  strong  springpole  above,  and  then  we  were  ready  for  custom  work 
as  well  as  our  own.  But  how  to  obtain  the  corn  to  grind  was  another  con- 
sideration, none  could  be  furnished  so  early  by  the  people — it  had  not  yet 
been  grown ;  so  we  went  to  northern  Indiana  where  the  settlements  along  the 
Vistula  turnpike  were  more  advanced,  and  this  all  here  were  obliged  to  do. 
Our  profits  from  this  investment  were  not  large,  scarcely  enough  to  pay  for 
outlays  and  labor,  though  our  patronage  was  large,"  This  mill,  operated  in 
the  summer  of  1S31,  stood  at  the  south  front  of  Mr.  Hanchett's  log  resi- 
dence already  described. 

In  1834  Peter  Martin,  the  judge  of  probate,  built  a  sawmill  that  stood 
a  trifle  north  from  where  Division  street  intersects  Clay  street,  and  the  dam 
occupied  the  line  upon  which  Division  street  crosses  the  Coldwater  river. 
Traces  of  the  old  mill  race  may  still  be  seen  along  the  north  bank  of  the 
river.  The  pond,  which  spread  over  quite  a  large  surface,  was  after  about  four 
years  considered  to  be  a  source  of  disease  and  was  torn  away  by  the  people 
as  a  nuisance.  On  the  authority  of  Dr.  Sprague,  this  property  had  passed  into 
the  hands  of  L,  D.  and  P.  H,  Crippen  about  1835. 

On  a  previous  page,  in  connection  with  the  history  of  the  village  of 
Branch,   has  been   mentioned  the   failure  of  an  attempt  to  establish  a  mill 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  59 

there,  and  the  significance  of  the  event  in  the  contest  between  Branch  and 
Ccildwater.  It  is  now  proper  to  describe  how  that  attempt  which  failed  at 
Branch  resulted  in  the  estabhshment  of  early  Coldwater's  chief  manufactur- 
ing industry. 

Early  in  1836  the  partners,  Francis  Smith,  Thomas  Dougherty  and  Will- 
iam B.  Sprague,  selected  a  site  at  the  west  end  of  Pearl  street  as  the  location 
for  their  saw  and  grist  mil!.  Work  on  the  sawmill  was  begun  the  same  season 
and  was  finished  some  time  in  the  fall.  The  flouring  mili  was  commenced 
quite  early  in  the  spring  of  1837,  and  completed  early  in  the  following  winter. 
Samuel  Etheridge,  another  pioneer  citizen  of  Coldwater,  was  chief  engineer, 
architect  and  builder.  The  mills  were  built  in  accordance  with  the  most  mod- 
ern standards  of  the  time. 

In  1838  the  mills  were  sold  to  John  J.  Curtis  and  O.  B.  Clark,  from  whom 
thev  passed,  in  1841,  to  L.  D.  and  P.  H.  Crippen.  On  the  withdrawal  of 
P.  H.  Crippen  in  1844  the  firm  became  Crippen  and  Etougherty,  and  later 
L.  D.  Crippen  was  sole  owner.  The  mills  were  burnt  in  1S58,  but  rebuilt  the 
next  year.  James  B.  Crippen  became  owner,  and  then  E.  R,  Clarke,  and  in 
r86g  William  A.  Coombs  bought  the  plant,  since  which  time  his  name  has 
|]een  connected  with  the  institution. 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 


CHAPTER  X. 
COUNTY  SEAT  CONTEST. 

With  this  understanding  of  the  growth  of  Coldwater  village,  the  ability 
of  its  citizenship  and  its  material  resources,  we  may  now  describe  the  final 
stages  of  the  county  seat  contest,  which  resulted  in  the  complete  loss  of 
prestige  for  the  vitiage  of  Branch  and  the  transfer  of  all  its  power  to  the 
rival  village  on  the  prairie. 

As  mentioned  in  the  sketch  of  Elisha  Warren,  the  citizens  of  Coldwater 
never  allowed  the  county  seat  to  rest  quietly  with  Branch.  In  the  end  the 
question  was  settled  by  local  option,  and  Coldwater,  being  able  to  summon 
the  greater  political  power  to  the  support  of  her  contention,  won  the  county 
seat. 

An  act  of  the  legislature  approved  March  16,  1840,  declared  that  after 
July  4,  1840,  the  seat  of  justice  of  the  county  of  Branch  was  vacated  and 
that  the  same  should  be  selected  and  fixed  upcn  by  "three  commissioners  to 
be  appointed  by  the  governor  by  and  with  the  advice  of  the  senate."  Of  course 
these  commissioners  could  choose  to  allow  the  seat  to  remain  with  Brancli, 
and  removal  to  another  location  was  conditioned  on  a  land  site  being  donated 
and  all  cost  of  court  house  and  jail  being  secured  by  money  or  bond  from  the 
interested  parties.  The  entire  transaction  of  removal  should  cause  no  expense 
to  attach  either  to  the  state  or  the  county. 

The  commissioners  were  to  make  their  selection  on  or  before  the  first 
Monday  in  June,  1841.  Whether  the  opposition  to  the  change  was  still  too 
strong  in  the  western  part  of  the  county,  or  whether  the  citizens  of  Cold- 
water  were  unable  or  unwilling  to  fulfill  satisfactorily  the  conditions  of  the 
bill,  cannot  be  definitely  stated,  since  neither  the  county  nor  newspaper  rec- 
ords throw  any  light  on  the  matter.  Certain  it  is  that  the  county  seat  was  not 
changed  under  the  provisions  of  this  bill  of  1840. 

But  on  February  5,  1842,  an  act  was  approved  declaring  the  seat  of 
justice  vacated  and  to  be  established  in  the  "  village  of  Coldwater;"  provided, 
that  security  should  be  given  to  the  county  commissioners  for  a  sum  equal  to 
the  appraised  value  of  the  court  house  ami  jail  at  Branch;  that  at  least  three- 
quarters  of  an  acre  of  land  in  the  village  of  Coldwater  should  be  donated 
for  the  county  site;  and  that  the  persons  interested  in  the  removal  should 
furnish  free  temporary  quarters  for  the  holding  of  the  terms  of  circuit  court 
until  a  court  house  could  be  erected.  The  terms  of  the  bill  were  to  be  com- 
plied with  on  or  before  March   i,   1842, 

By  this  act  the  selection  of  the  site  was  to  be  determined  by  the  three 
county  commissioners.      (It  should  be  stated  that  the  system  of  countv  gov- 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  61 

enimeiit  by  a  board  of  township  supervisors  had  been  abolished  in  1837  and 
the  county's  affairs  placed  under  the  jurisdiction  of  a  board  of  three  county 
commissioners.  The  office  of  county  commissioner  had  been  a.boHshed  in 
1841  and  a  return  made  to  the  township  supervisor  system.  Accordingly  the 
last  important  official  acts  of  the  Branch  county  commissioners  was  the  selec- 
tion of  the  new  county  seat)  The  county  commissioners  at  this  time  were 
Hiram  Shoudler,  of  Union,  chairman  of  the  board;  Oliver  D.  Colvin,  of 
Kinderhook;  and  Hiram  Gardner,  of  Matteson.  Mr.  Gardner  had  been  chosen 
the  preceding  autumn  in  place  of  Wales  Adams  of  Bronson,  and  as  stated  in 
the  sketcJi  of  Mr.  Elisha  Warren,  the  election  had  largely  hinged  on  the 
county  seat  question. 

The  political  issues  involved  had  been  settled,  therefore,  before  the  act 
of  the  legislature  passed,  and  there  was  no  delay  after  the  act  had  been  a\y- 
proved,  on  February  5th.  The  issue  of  the  Coklwater  Sentinel  of  February 
nth  contained  the  following  paragiaph:  "The  requisitions  of  the  bill  which 
■  h,'is  passed  the  present  legislature  to  vacate  the  seat  of  justice  and  establish 
the  same  at  the  village  of  Coldwater  have  been  complied  with^he  county 
commissioners  have  performed  their  duty  under  the  law ;  and  the  result  of 
their  deliberations  has  been  to  drive  the  stake  for  the  court  house  on  a  lot  on 
the  southeast  corner  of  the  public  square,  taking  land  for  the  jail  a  little  east 
of  the  public  square  on  land  owned  by  Mr.  James  Shoecraft." 

One  other  incident  of  the  contest  should  be  noted.  It  was  provided  that 
the  jail  at  Branch  should  be  used  for  the  confinement  of  prisoners  until  one 
could  be  built  at  the  new  seat.  Tlius  Branch  retained  a  part  of  the  county 
seat  until  the  event  recorded  by  the  Sentinel  of  June  16,  1843:  "Tlie  old 
court  house  and  jail  at  Branch  was  destroyed  by  fire  during  the  night  of  Sun- 
day. tJie  I  ifh.  Tlie  building  had  not  been  in  use  by  the  county  except  as  a  jail 
since  the  removal  of  the  county  seat  to  this  place.  One  room  in  the  building 
was  occupied  as  an  office  by  Dr.  H.  B.  Stillman.  Tlie  fire  was  evidently  the 
work  of  an  incendiary,  and  circumstances  having  transpired  to  fasten  sus- 
|)icion  on  Lawson  Woodward,  a  young  man  who  had  previously  been  confined 
in  the  prison,  he  was  arrested,"  etc.  Thus  ended  the  first  county  seat.  It 
has  l^een  asserted  that  the  former  prisoner  was  paid  to  bum  the  old  building, 
the  motives  being,  apparently,  to  destroy  Branch's  last  claim  to  the  seat  of 
justice,  and  also  perhaps  to  hasten  the  building  of  a  jail  at  Coldwater.  Until 
a  new  jail  was  provided,  Branch  county  prisoners  were  kept  in  St.  Joseph 
county. 

Pursuant  to  the  act  for  the  removal'  of  the  seat  of  justice,  the  citizens 
of  Coldwater  had  guaranteed  three  hundred  dollars  toward  the  erection  of  a 
county  building,  that  sum  representing  the  value  of  the  structure  at  Branch. 
In  October,  1843,  the  board  of  supervisors  resolved  to  submit  to  the  electors 
a  proposition  to  raise  four  hundred  dollars  in  addition  to  this,  sum  of  three 
hundred,  with  which  to  build  a  jail.  But  the  people  were  not  yet  ready  to  vote 
money  for  county  buildings,  and  this  resolution  and  similar  ones  were  neg- 
atived. In  the  spring  of  1846  a  proposition  to  expend  a  thousand  dollars, 
besides  the  sum  guaranteed  by  Coldwater,  was  approved  by  the  votes  of  the 


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62  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

people.  The  jail  was  built  in  the  summer  of  that  year,  and  was  accepted  as 
completed  in  January,  1847.  This  old  jail,  which  was  built  of  heavy  plank- 
ing straight  up  and  down,  and  riveted  together,  stood  on  the  north  side  of 
Pearl  street  and  about  midway  between  Hudson  and  Jefferson  streets.  It 
was  burned  in  April,  1S59,  while  Sheriff  David  N.  Green  was  residing  in 
it.  After  the  fire  a  bam  that  stood  on  the  comer  where  the  jail  now  stands 
was  converted  into  a  lock-up,  and  five  or  six  years  later  that,  too,  was  burned. 
A  temporary  wooden  structure  was  then  erected,  and  served  as  a  jail  until  the 
present  brick  jail  was  erected  in  1875.  The  present  jail,  which  was  built  at 
a  cost  of  $18,358.70,  was  constructed  under  the  direction  of  a  building  com- 
mittee of  which  the  late  Cyrus  G.  Luce  was  chairman,  the  other  two  mem- 
bers being  the  late  Judge  David  N.  Green  and  William  P.  Arnold.  Their 
committee  report  was  accepted  bv  the  board  of  supervisors  on  October  12, 

1875- 

COURT    HOUSE. 

More  than  six  years  elapsed  from  the  time  Coldwater  became  the  county 
seat  before  a  court  house  was  erected.  The  various  permanent  officials  had 
their  quarters  in  hired  rooms,  while  the  courts  were  conducted  in  a  rickety  old 
building  that  occupied  the  site  of  the  brick  residence  erected  by  the  late  Dr. 
J.  H.  Beach.  During  one  of  the  presidential  campaigns  this  building  received 
the  name  of  "Coon  Pen."  It  was  well  entitled  to  this  name,  and  bore  it  long 
after  it  was  given  up  for  court  purposes. 

The  jail  being  the  important  public  building,  it  was  not  until  after  that 
had  been  provided  that  the  svipervisors  turned  iJieir  attention  to  the  erection 
of  a  court  house.  Resolutions  were  finally  passed  making  the  building  of  a 
court  house  a  proposition  to  be  voted  on  by  the  people  of  the  county  at  the 
spring  election  of  1847.  The  vote  cast  in  favor  of  the  building  was  824,  with 
797  votes  against  it.  It  is  a  noteworthy  coincidence  that  this  majority  of 
27  by  which  the  building  of  the  first  court  house  in  Coldwater  was  assured, 
was  exactly  duplicated  forty  years  later,  when  the  erection  of  the  present 
court  house  was  decided  upon,  27  being  the  decisive  number  in  both  instances, 
although  of  course  the  total  vote  was  much  larger  in  1887. 

The  old  court  house  pictured  on  another  page  was  accordingly  erected 
in  1848,  at  a  cost  of  five  thousand  dollars,  being  accepted  by  the  supervisors 
in  the  fall  of  that  year  and  first  occupied  for  public  purposes  in  December. 

The  court  house  erected  by  the  county  in  1848  served  for  the  home  of 
official  business  a  generation  of  time,  and  then  as  the  county  developed  there 
came  a  time  when  the  building  became  unsuited  to  be  the  seat  of  a  flourishing 
county  like  Branch.  All  this  and  more  is  recited  in  the  preamble  of  a  resolu- 
tion offered  for  the  consideration  of  the  board  of  supervisors  at  their  regular 
October  session  of  18S5  by  the  committee  on  county  poor  and  county  prop- 
erty. This  committee  consisted  of  ElHston  Warner,  Jerome  Corwin  and  C.  C. 
Van  Vorst.  After  describing  the  unsuitableness  of  the  court  house  for  its 
purposes,  the  lack  of  fire-proof  offices  for  the  keeping  of  the  records,  the 
impossibility  of  repairing  the  court  house  so  as  to  accommodate  the  business 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  63 

of  the  county,  and  calling  the  attention  of  the  board  to  the  cheapness  of 
labor  and  material  as  opportune  for  the  erection  of  a  new  building,  the  com- 
mittee resolved  "that  the  question  of  raising  by  tax  upon  said  county  the 
sum  of  $50,000,  one-third  of  the  same  to  be  raised  in  eadi  of  the  years  i886, 
1887  and  1888,  for  the  purpose  of  building  a  new  court  house,  be  submitted 
to  the  electors  of  Branch  county  at  the  next  annual  township  meetings." 
The  resolution  was  adopted  without  a  dissenting  vote. 

When  the  real  decision  of  the  question  came  before  the  people  of  the 
county  on  April  5,  1886,  an  adverse  majority  of  687  was  rendered  against 
the  proposition.  Nothing  more  was  done  during  that  year,  except  to  carry 
on  the  agitation  and  call  for  plans  of  a  proposed  building. 

At  the  January  session  of  1887  Supervisor  Warner  offered  another 
resolution,  which  was  adopted  by  the  board,  to  submit  the  matter  of  raising 
the  required  sum  for  the  new  court  house  to  the  people.  Some  of  the  super- 
\'isors  had  evidently  been  instructed  by  their  constituents,  for  five  votes  were 
recorded  against  the  resolution.  This  motion,  it  should  be  noticed,  provided 
for  the  raising  of  the  sum  of  fifty  thousand  dollars  by  loans  instead  of  by  tax, 
such  loans  to  be  paid  with  interest  in  five  animal  instalments  on  the  first  of 
February  of  the  years  1888,  1889,  1S90,  1891,  1892. 

To  safeguard  the  interests  of  the  people  another  motion  was  then  car- 
ried to  the  effect  that  "we  as  members  of  the  board  of  supervisors  pledge 
ourselves  individually  and  collectively  that  in  no  event  shall  the  amount  ex- 
pended in  the  erection  of  the  court  house  exceed  the  sum  of  fifty  thousand 
dollars." 

The  vote  was  taken  in  April,  1887.  The  people  of  the  county  were  by 
no  means  unanimous,  the  canvass  of  votes  showing  2,791  for  and  2,764  against 
the  proposition,  so  that  the  erection  of  a  new  court  house  was  assured  by  a 
bare  majority  of  27. 

The  construction  of  the  court  house  was  entrusted  to  a  building  com- 
mittee of  five,  elected  by  the  supervisors  from  their  own  number.  As  the 
executive  responsibility  devolved  on  these  men,  it  is  proper  that  their  names 
should  be  given  in  the  history  of  the  building  that  is  still  in  use  for  county 
business.  They  were  George  W.  Ellis,  David  B.  Purinton,  George  Miller, 
M.  B.  Wakeman,  and  J.  H.  Davis. 

It  should  also  be  noted  that  the  block  of  land  on  which  the  court  house 
ami  jail  are  now  situated  was  squared  ofif  to  its  present  proportions  at  this 
time,  when  the  board  purchased  a  lot  of  land  fronting  on  Pearl  street  for  seven 
rods  and  running  north  fifteen  rods  and  three  feet,  "excepting  a  strip  ten  feet 
by  sixty  feet  out  of  the  southwest  corner." 

To  finance  the  building  operations  it  was  resolved  that  bonds  of  five  hun- 
dred dollars  each  to  the  amount  of  forty  thousand  dollars  should  be  issued, 
dated  July  i,  1887,  with  interest  at  five  per  cent,  payable  in  four  equal  instal- 
ments on  the  first  of  March  of  eacli  of  the  years  1889,  1890,  1891,  and  1892. 
There  were  two  local  bids  for  the  bonds,  that  accepted  coming  from  Mr. 
George  Starr  and  reading  as  follows :  "I  will  give  par  and  $425  with  accrued 
interest  to  the  first  day  of  any  month  within  one  year  from  the  date  of  bonds 


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64  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

for  the  court  house  bonds  in  lots  of  ten  thousand  dollars  until  the  whole 
amount  of  forty  thousand  dollars  in  said  bonds  are  delivered  to  me." 

The  preliminary  arrangements  completed,  the  actual  work  of  construction 
was  soon  begtin.  The  plans  of  Mr.  M.  H.  Parker,  a  Coidwater  architect,  were 
adopted,  and  at  the  June  sessitai  of  1887  the  committee  was  authorized  to  let 
the  contract  for  the  construction.  In  the  following  August  the  committee 
was  authorized  to  tear  down  the  old  building,  and  provision,  was  made  for  the 
accommodation  of  the  various  offices  during  the  time  of  building,  the  clerk, 
sheriff,  treasurer  and  superintendent  of  the  poor  being  quartered  in  the  old 
postoffice  building,  the  register  of  deeds  in  another  building,  rooms  in  the 
Masonic  block  being  rented  for  the  judge  of  probate,  whil»the  circuit  court 
sessions  were  held  in  Armory  Hall. 

Crocker  and  Hudnutt,  of  Big  Rapids,  Michigan,  who  were  awarded  the 
building  contract  as  the  lowest  bidder,  rapidly  pushed  the  work  of  construc- 
tion, and  since  the  summer  of  1888  the  present  court  house  has  been  in  use 
for  the  transaction  of  all  county  business.  The  building  committee  made  its 
finai  report  on  August  i,  188S,  and  a  few  days  later  the  report  was  approved 
and  the  building  formally  accepted  as  complete.  At  that  time  the  committee 
reported  the  total  receipts  for  the  building  of  the  court  house  tabe  $52,098.99, 
and  the  total  disbursements  as  $50,131.34,  leaving  a  balance  to  the  people  of 
$1,976.65.  Not  oniy  the  financial  management,  but  the  entire  transaction  was 
creditable  to  those  officially  concerned. 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 


CHAPTER  XL 
SETTLEMENT  AND  BEGINNINGS  (CONTINUED). 

QUINCY. 

The  preceding  pages  have  carried  the  narrative  of  settlement  and  begin- 
nings along  the  Chicago  road  np  to  the  last  township  traversed  by  that  thor- 
oughfare, namely,  Quincy.  One  of  the  main  propositions  with  which  we 
started  this  account  of  settlement  was  the  remarkable  influence  of  the  Chicago 
road.  Nowhere  is  it  more  graphically  illustrated  than  in  the  case  of  Quincy 
township.  According  to  the  original  land  entries,  the  locations  for  the  year 
1830  were  chosen  on  sections  12,  13,  14,  the  last  two  sections  being  bisected 
by  the  road ;  the  locations  for  1832  were  on  section  15 :  those  for  1833,  on  sec- 
tion 19;  and  those  for  1834,  on  sections  17,  18  and  20 — all  being  on  or  near 
the  road.  Only  one  circumstance  can  qualify  in  any  way  the  deductions  to  be 
drawn  from  these  facts — namely,  that  the  best  land  for  settlement  lay  along 
the  central  area  traversed  by  the  Chicago  road,  the  "prairies"  and  the  ^ak 
openings  being  situated  in  this  portion,  while  both  the  north  and  the  south 
sides  of  the  township  were  originally  heavily  timbered. 

The  first  .settler  who  came  along  the  road  into  this  township  was  Horris 
WiUson,  who  came  from  Detroit,  where  he  had  lived  since  1825,  his  native 
place  being  Batavia,  New  York.  His  land  purchase,  which  was  the  first  in 
the  township  and  was  made  in  June,  1830,  consisted  of  three  hundred  and 
twenty  acres  in  one  body  but  lying  in  sections  12,  13  and  14.  Being  a 
carpenter,  with  the  assistance  of  a  hired  man,  he  constructed  a  house  of  hewn 
logs  on  the  north  side  of  the  Chicago  road  in  section  14,  and  soon  afterward 
opened  it  to  the  public  as  a  tavern.  To  quote  the  words  of  another,  Mr.  Will- 
son  "purchased  the  first  land,  built  the  first  house,  plowed  the  first  furrow, 
planted  the  first  corn,  sowed  the  first  oats,  and  kept  the  first  tavern  in  the 
township  of  Quincy."  He  did  not  live  long  to  enjoy  the  fruits  of  his  pioneer 
labors.  Ellis  Russell  kept  the  tavern  for  his  widow  after  his  death.  Mr. 
Willson's  daughter  became  the  wife  of  Dr.  E.  G.  Berry. 

A  pioneer  whose  connection  with  the  township  was  longer  and  who  became 
one  of  the  prominent  men  in  the  early  history  of  the  county  was  James  G. 
Corbus.  who  was  born  in  Detroit  in  1804,  and  came  to  Branch  county  in 
June,  1832.  It  has  already  been  stated  that  he  was  a  contractor  during  the 
summer  of  that  year  on  a  portion  of  the  Chicago  road  in  Bronson  township, 
and  it  is  possible  that  this  work  led  him  to  locate  in  Branch  county.  Anyhow, 
in  the  fall  of  that  year,  he  purchased  some  land  in  section  13,  and  on  taking  up 
liis  actual  residence  in  1833  he  began  the  erection  of  the  first  frgme  house. 


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66  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

When  this  was  completed  it  was  also  opened  for  the  accommodation  of  the 
traveling  public.  This  house  was  located  on  the  north  side  of  the  Chicago 
road  and  almost  opposite  the  road  since  called  Maple  street.  The  house  stood 
for  many  years.  In  it  was  organized  the  first  Sunday  school  and  the  first 
temperance  society  of  the  township.  It  afforded  shelter  to  many  of  the  work- 
men engaged  in  the  construction  of  the  Lake  Shore  railroad,  which  destroyed 
the  importance  of  the  Chicago  road  and  at  the  same  time  took  away  the 
patronage  of  the  inn.  Mr.  Corbus  was  the  second  treasurer  of  Branch 
county. 

As  already  stated,  the  year  1832  showed  a  land  entry  on  section  15,  but 
as  this  has  particular  reference  to  the  village  of  Quincy,  it  will  be  well  to 
omit  its  consideration  at  present  and  speak  first  of  the  course  of  settlement  in 
the  other  portions  of  the  township.' 

On  the  western  side  of  the  township,  in  section  19,  Joseph  L.  Hartsough 
entered  land  in  1833,  and  in  this  same  section  Rice  T.  Arnold,  the  father 
of  William  P.  and  Anselum,  soon  after  purchased  land.  Henry  Van  Hyning 
entered  land  in  section  17  in  1834,  and  about  the  same  time  settlement  began 
in  sections  18  and  20.  Not  until  1835;  did  the  land  entries  reach  beyond  the 
central  belt  of  the  township.  In  that  year  sections  i  and  2,  on  the  north, 
and  section  30,  showed  entries,  but  by  that  time  all  of  the  two  middle  rows 
of  sections  were  entered  in  whole  or  in  part. 

Quincy  township  and  village  have  shown  the  slow  and  steady  growth  that 
marks  the  purely  agricultural  community.  In  the  period  of  pioneer  years 
which  we  are  now  discussing,  scarcely  any  occupation  was  followed  except 
farming.  The  population  spread  out  over  the  thirty-six  sections  of  the  town, 
and  in  time,  by  a  process  of  natural  selection,  began  grouping  around  the 
civic  center.  Here  settled  at  any  early  day  some  men  of  unusual  personality 
and  strength  of  character,  whose  influence  was  exerted  for  village  life,  and 
gradually  there  appeared  such  institutions  as  the  church  and  school,  the  post- 
office,  the  store,  and  representatives  of  the  trades  and  the  professions.  The 
point  to  be  emphasized  is,  that  for  many  years  the  community  which  became 
Quincy  village  was  the  central  settlement  of  Quincy  township  and  without 
the  sharp  distinctions  which  we  have  seen  marked  off  the  village  of  Cold- 
water  so  soon  from  the  rest  of  the  township.  This  natural  growtli  and  ab- 
sence of  rapid  business  changes  may  account  in  a  measure  for  the  appearance 
of  permanence,  of  continuity  in  life  and  institutions,  and  the  whol-esome  civic 
interest  and  pride,  which  impress  themselves  most  definitely  on  one  who 
studies  and  observes  the  history  of  Quincy  village. 

On  October  16,  1832,  the  first  land  was  entered  in  section  15,  it  being 
in  the  southwest  corner  of  the  section,  with  its  west  boundary  the  main  street 
of  Quincy  village.  The  course  of  history,  we  might  say  the  accidents  of  his- 
tory, caused  the  locator  of  this  land  to  be  honored  as  the  pioneer  of  Quincy 
village,  the  man  who  made  the  first  improvements  which  the  thousands  of 
after  generations  would  enjoy  and  carry  on  to  greater  development.  This 
pioneer  was  John  Cornish,  who  was  living  in  Girard  township  at  the  time  he 
made  his  land  purchase  at  Quincy,  being  one  of  the  pioneers  of  the  former 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  67 

to\vnslii|D.  He  did  not  put  up  a  log  cabin  and  move  his  family  to  his  new  pur- 
chase until  the  fall  of  1833.  In  the  spring  of  1834  he  began  the  erection  of 
a  frame  house  on  the  north  side  of  the  Chicago  road  and  where  Main  street 
now  intersects  that  thoroughfare,  this  being  the  site  of  the  present  "Ouincy 
House."  As  soon  as  this  house  was  ready  he  opened  it  as  a  tavern.  That 
e\ent  marked  a  b^inning.  Travelers  along  the  road,  on  reaching  the  beau- 
tiful prairie  which  surrounded  this  house,  chose  to  stop  there  for  entertain- 
ment. Being  situated  at  the  center  of  the  township,  the  electors  made  the 
Cornish  tavern  the  place  of  their  first  township  meeting.  Mr.  Cornish  was 
moderator  at  that  meeting  and  was  elected  one  of  the  justices  of  the  peace. 
He  rented  his  tavern  in  the  spring  of  1836  to  Pearson  Anson,  and  soon  after 
Kfild  the  property  to  Joseph  Berry,  and  then  lived  in  his  first  log  house  until 
he  could  move  to  a  new  home  on  a  farm  in  the  township. 

But  for  the  first  year  after  the  establishment  of  his  tavern,  Mr.  Cornish 
was  practically  alone  so  far  as  permanent  neighlrors  were  concerned.  Other 
parts  of  the  comity  were  attracting  the  majority  of  the  immigrants.  But  in 
1835,  a  year  which  gave  hundreds  of  strong  and  able  citizens  to  Branch 
county,  Quincy  township  and  especially  its  central  area  received  a  great  im- 
pulse in  settlement. 

In  1834  Joseph  Berry,  one  of  the  several  sons  of  Samuel  Berry,  the 
family  being  originally  ^rom  New  Hampshire  but  at  this  time  residents  of 
Chautauqua  county.  New  York,  had  come  to  Branch  county  and  spent  the 
summer  at  the  Arnold  home  in  east  Coldwater  township.  His  enthusiastic 
descriptions  of  this  region,  recited  again  and  again  when  he  had  returned 
to  his  home  in  New  York  state,  were  sui^cient  to  induce  all  the  Berry  family 
to  become  pioneers.  The  father  came  out  in  the  spring  of  1835  and  after  pros- 
pecting as  far  west  as  Illinois,  in  the  summer  purchased  land  in  the  north- 
east corner  of  section  21  and  began  building  a  frame  house  near  the  Chicago 
roa{l.  In  the  same  spring  his  son,  Ejios  G.,  had  come  to  Branch  county,  and 
ill  the  fall  Joseph  arrived  with  the  household  effects.  Ezra,  the  youngest  of 
the  toys,  then  fifteen  years  old,  arrived  about  the  same  time,  having  driven 
the  two  cows  that  belonged  to  the  family  the  entire  distance  from  New  York 
to  Michigan. 

Tile  Berry  home,  which  was  located  on  the  south  side  of  the  road  about 
lliree-quarters  of  a  mile  west  of  Main  street,  became  a  hotel,  and  the  boy 
Ezra  assisted  his  father  in  its  management.  In  1836  the  hotel  was  leased 
to  another  party,  and  Mr.  Samuel  Berry  built  for  his  home  a  small  house  a 
few  rods  east.  This  house  is  also  of  historic  importance,  for  when  the  first 
postoffice  was  established  in  this  vicinity  it  was  located  at  the  Berry  home,  in 
1837.  Dr.  Enos  G.  Berry  was  the  first  postmaster,  and  it  is  of  well  established 
tradition  that  a  bushel  basket  was  the  receptacle  in  which  the  mail  was  kept. 
Ezra  Berry,  however,  performed  the  active  duties  of  the  office,  and  was  gener- 
ally called  upon  to  examine  the  contents  of  the  basket. 

The  Berry  family,  father  and  sons,  owned  most  of  the  land  on  which  the 
village  of  Quincy  was  afterwards  built.  Samuel  and  Dr.  E.  G.  were  the 
"li^inal  purchasers  of  a  large  part  of  section  21,  and  Joseph  Berry  bought  of 


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«8  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

John  Cornish  the  southwest  comer  of  section  15,  and  also  owned  a  large  part 
of  section  22.  At  the  time  now  under  consideration  this  part  of  the  town- 
ship had  few  evidences  of  village  life.  Dr.  Berry  was  the  physician  for  the 
people  of  the  vicinity,  besides  being  postmaster.  In  1835  Daniel  Bagley  had 
arrived  at  the  settlement.  Buying  an  acre  of  ground  from  Mr.  Cornish,  he 
put  up  a  frame  house  on  the  north  side  of  the  Chicago  road  and  on  the 
south  side  a  blacl^smith  shop,  where  he  attended  to  the  mechanical  needs  of 
the  community.  This  was  located  where  Dally  street  now  intersects  Chicago 
road.  Consequeni  ly,  a  blacksmith  shop,  a  postoffice.  two  hotels  and  a  physi- 
cian were  the  elements  of  village  life  that  would  have  been  found  here  in  1S37, 

But  several  other  settlers  had  come  in  during  1836  and  1837  who  were 
to  take  a  prominent  part  in  the  affairs  of  this  township.  In  1835  John 
Broiighton,  a  native  of  Vermont,  had  come  from  Lorain  county.  Ohio,  and 
had  located  on  the  Chicago  road  )vst  over  the  line  in  Coldwater  township. 
'  In  the  double  log  house  which  stood  adjacent  to  the  l>rick  kiln  (one  of  the 
first  brick-making  establishments  in  the  county),  he  kept  a  tavern  for  the 
first  year,  but  in  1836  moved  to  the  Quincy  settlement.  Oii  the  north  side  of 
the  Chicago  road,  about  opposite  what  is  now  Grove  street.  Silas  Hamilton 
{who  was  a  settler  of  the  fall  of  1835)  had  begun  the  erection  of  a  large 
log  house.  This  was  still  unfinished  when  Mr.  Broughton  bought  the  prop- 
eity,  completed  the  building,  and  moved  his  family  to  the  new  home  in 
December,  1836.  Just  across  the  road  from  the  Broughton  home,  the  same 
Mr.  Hamilton  had  erected  a  Httie  shanty  to  serve  as  his  first  shelter,  and 
here,  about  1837,  a  cobbler  named  Thomas  Valier  had  a  shoe  shop. 

One  other  settler  in  1836  deserves  mention.  James  M.  Burdick,  who 
came  to  Branch  county  and  spent  the  year  1831  in  the  employ  of  Abraham  F. 
Bolton  near  Coldwater,  and  then  lived  in  Hillsdale  county  for  several  years, 
moved  to  Quincy  township  in  the  spring  of  1836,  locating  on  section  24, 
which  was  his  home  during  many  years  of  worthy  citizenship. 

During  all  this  time  the  area  of  the  present  Quincy  township  had  not 
been  organized  separately,  and  as  we  know,  the  first  Quincy  township  com- 
prised also  what  are  now  Algansee  and  California.  Therefore,  at  the  first 
town  meeting,  which  occurred  in  April,  1836.  some  of  the  men  who  took 
part  were  resident  south  of  the  present  south  line  of  the  township.  But 
almost  all  the  officers  chosen  came  from  the  settlers  whose  names  have  been 
mentioned,  the  first  official  list  of  the  township  comprising  the  following: 
Enos  G.  Berry,  David  W.  Baker,  John  Cornish,  James  G.  Corbus,  Samuel 
Beach,  Samuel  H.  Berry,  Luther  Briggs,  James  Adams,  Joseph  T.  Burnham, 
Pearson  Anson,  James  M.  Burdick,  Griswold  Burnham,  Conrad  Rapp, 
Thomas  Wheeler,  Joseph  L.  Hartsough. 

In  October,  1837,  Quincy  township,  still  comprising  an  area  of  two  full 
townships  and  one  fractional,  had  569  inhabitants.  Just  what  per  cent  of 
these  lived  in  the  present  township  of  Quincy  cannot  be  stated,  but  it  is 
certain  that  they  were  the  great  majority,  and  furthermore  that  they  lived 
in  the  sections  convenient  to  the  Chicago  road.  This  concentration  of  popu^ 
iation  is  further  proved  by  the  location  of  the  first  three  schools  of  the  town- 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  69 

ship.  The  first  school  house,  of  logs,  was  built  in  1837  on  land  nuw  owned 
by  the  railroad  in  Quincy  village ;  the  second,  built  the  same  year,  was  in  the 
'■  Hog  Creek  district,"  in  the  eastern  part  of  the  township;  ami  the  third,  ni 
JS38,  was  at  the  west  edge  of  section  20  on  the  Chicago  road. 

Bishop  Chase  and  Gilead  Township. 

The  Chicago  road  was  the  avenue  by  which  Bishop  Philander  Chasi 
came  to  Branch  county.  The  story  of  his  settlement  in  Gilead,  apart  from 
the  iniportarce  attaching  to  it  as  the  historical  beginning  of  Gilead  township, 
is  of  even  more  interest  for  the  threads  of  fact  concerning  the  county  in 
general  and  the  conditions  and  customs  of  the  time. 

Bishop  Philander  Chase  was  born  in  Cornish,  New  Hampshire,  in  i775t 
graduated  from  Dartmouth  College  in  1795,  studied  for  the  ministry  of  the 
Episcopal  church,  and  in  1819  was  consecrated  bisliop  of  04iio,  the  first 
bishop  of  the  Episcopal  church  west  of  the  Alleghany  mountains.  He  was 
the  founder  of  Kenyon  College  in  Ohio,  which  is  regarded  as  his  greatest 
achievement,  but  which  was  also  the  source  of  his  greatest  personal  disap- 
pointment. For,  being  unable  to  carry  out  his  plans  for  that  institution  be- 
cause of  the  interference  and  persecution  from  his  enemies,  he  felt  it  his  duty 
fo  resign  the  episcopate  of  the  diocese  and  the  presidency  of  the  college, 
which  he  did  in  September,  1831.  On  Easter  day  of  1832  he  administered 
holy  communion  for  the  last  time  in  Ohio,  and  on  the  following  morning  set 
out  on  horseback  with  a  friend,  Bezaleel  Wells,  with  the  intention  of  visiting 
a  son  of  the  latter  at  Prairie  Ronde  in  Kalamazoo  county,  Michigan.  It  was 
also  a  half -expressed  hope  of  the  bishop  to  find  in  the  course  of  his  explora- 
tions a  region  where  he  might  found  a  home  and  build  up  the  institutions 
of  the  church  and  education  in  accordance  with  the  plans  which  were  still  so 
cherished  by  him. 

Going  to  Monroe  and  from  there  to  Adrian  and  to  the  Chicago  road,  the 
j)arty  came  on  through  Jonesviile.  Coldwater  and  Bronson's  prairie.  At 
this  point  we  may  quote  the  bishop's  own  "  Reminiscences,"  written  in  1847, 
only  a  few  years  before  his  death.  "  It  was  Friday  night  when  they  reached 
a  place  called' Adams'  Mills  on  one  of  the  streams  of  the  St.  Joseph  river. 
'And  who  is  this?'  said  the  landlord  of  the  log-cabin  tavern  to  Mr.  Wells, 
in  a  low  voice.  '  Is  he  come  out  to  purchase  lands?  '  '  He  may  purchase  if  he 
finds  some  that  suits  him."  Mr.  Judson,  for  that  was  the  man's  name,  then 
strode  through  the  room  and  raising  his  voice,  said  aloud,  as  if  still  speaking 
to  Mr.  Wells,  '  Much  more  beautiful  scenery  and  richer  land  are  to  lie  found 
ill  this  neighborhood  than  further  west.  And  men  would  find  it  so  if  they 
would  only  stop,  go  about  and  examine."  These  words  were  meant  for  the 
ear  of  the  wTiter.  He  took  them  so  and  inquired.  '  Where  is  this  good  land 
>ou  speak  of?"  'Within  eight  miles  of  this,  to  the  southeast,  there  is  a 
charming,  limpid  lake,  surrounded  witli  rising  burr-oak  and  prairie  lands,  in- 
terspersed with  portions  of  lofty  timber  for  building.  The  streams  are  of 
clear  and  running  water,  and  like  the  lake,  abound  in  the  finest  kind  of  fish ;  and 


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70  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

what  is  quite  an  essential  point,  tliese  lands  are  now  open  for  market,  and 
(except  some  choice  sugar-tree  eighties  already  taken  by  persons  from  In- 
diana) may  be  entered  by  anyone  going  to  White  Pigeon  where  the  land 
office  is  kept.'  '  Will  you  show  me  these  lands  if  I  stay  with  you  a  day  or 
two  ? '  *  If  I  do  not,  Mr.  Adams,  the  owner  of  the  saw  null,  will.  I  w.in 
furnish  him  with  a  horse;  and  Thomas  Holmes,  who  lives  near  us,  shall  go 
along  with  you  on  foot  with  his  rifle  to  kill  game  and  keep  off  the  wolves.' 
*     *     * 

"  The  next  day  was  Saturday.  Notice  was  given  to  the  few  settlers  in 
the  neighborhood  of  these  then  solitary  mills  that  divine  service  would  be 
celebrated  and  a  sermon  preached  on  the  morrow.  The  day  proved  fine  and 
nearly  all  the  inhabitants  attended.  This  was  the  first  time  the  prayer  book 
had  ever  been  used  for  public  worship  in  all  the  St.  Joseph  country. 

"  On  Monday  Mr.  Judson's  pony  was  made  ready,  and  Mr.  Adams  and 
Thomas  Holmes  were  in  waiting.  The  weather  was  mild  and  the  streams 
of  water  soon  crossed.  The  path  we  fell  on  was  an  old  Indian  trail 
leading  from  northwest  to  southeast.  On  this  trail  we  had  traveled  mostly 
through  grass  land,  thinly  studded  with  trees,  till  the  eight  miles 
spoken  of  by  Mr.  Judson  were  judged  to  have  been  finished;  when,  on  the 
left  of  us,  we  came  in  sight  of  a  lake  of  pure  water  and  sloping  banks  thinly 
covered  with  trees,  having  grass  under  them  all  around.  The  lake  itself  was 
of  an  irregular  shape,  and  about  a  mile  and  a  half  long.  It  had  a  promontory 
running  into  it,  covered  with  trees  of  peculiar  majestic  shape,  in  the  manner 
of  the  finest  rookeries  in  England.  *  *  *  All  things  were  like  magic. 
Such  charming  scenery  seemed  to  rivet  the  beholder  to  the  spot.  This  was 
no  wonder ;  for  it  was  the  first  time  that  any  such  lands  had  ever  met  his  eye. 
"  The  remainder  of  the  day  was  spent  in  riding  round  this  charming 
region,  which  the  writer  named  '  Gilead;'  a  name  it  still  bears.  Before  night 
a  family  was  discovered  to  have  just  moved  on  to  these  beautiful  grounds; 
a  few  logs  had  been  rolled  one  upon  the  other,  around  a  space  of  nine  or  ten 
feet  square,  and  a  covering  put  over  it.  six  feet  high  on  one  side  and  five 
feet  high  on  the  other.  In  this  was  Mr.  John  Croy,  his  wife  and  three  or 
four  children.     *     *     * 

"  The  writer  soon  after  this  went  to  the  land  office,  thirty  miles  to  the 
west,  and  entered  and  paid  for  a  farm  in  this  charming  land  of  Gilead,  in- 
cluding the  promontory,  or  '  English  Rookery '  just  described.  The  price 
was  one  dollar  and  a  quarter  per  acre,  and  no  more.  As  he  returned  from 
White  Pigeon  he  engaged  a  carpenter  to  find  materials  and  draw  them  to  the 
newly  named  place,  Gilead,  sixteen  miles,  and  put  up  and  cover  a  framed 
room  for  a  ploughman  and  his  family,  fourteen  feet  square.  The  ploughman 
was  hired  nearly  at  the  same  time  to  break  up  fifty  acres  of  prairie  turf-land. 
All  this  was  accomplished  in  a  short  time,  so  as  to  allow  of  a  crop  of  sod 
corn  and  potatoes  the  same  year.  This  was  very  difficult  to  accomplish,  havuig 
little  help  in  planting  besides  himself,  for  all  the  neighbors  in  the  surrounding 
settlements  were  called  to  tear  anus  in  the  '  Sac  War '  then  raging  in  the 
state  of  Illinois,  with  the  famous  Black  Hawk  as  its  head." 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  71 

After  the  planting  was  over  the  bishop  went  back  to  his  family  in  Ohio, 
and  then  returned  to  Gilead  with  his  sons  in  July,  1832.  They  set  to  work 
hewing  timber  and  framing  it  for  a  house  of  five  rooms,  digging  a  cellar,  and 
making  preparations  for  the  arrival  of  the  rest  of  the  family.  He  also  looked 
out  a  proper  place  for  a  saw  mill,  which  he  selected  on  Prairie  river  at  the 
ontlet  of  Island  Pond  on  the  east  side  of  section  4,  and  purchased  the  adjacent 
woodland.  This  was  the  first  saw  mill  in  the  town,  and  the  site  continued  to 
be  used  until  recently.  The  bishop  says  in  his  reminiscences:  "  The  fenced 
fields  were  enlarged,  and  every  year  produced  more  and  more.  The  number 
of  horned  cattle  increased  to  more  than  one  hundred.  A  mill  was  buit  on 
the  stream,  for  the  preparing  of  lumber  to  erect  a  schoolhouse;  and  all  things 
seemed  to  flourish  and  succeed  beyond  his  fondest  expectation." 

The  home  of  Bishop  Chase  while  in  Gilead  was  located  on  the  west  line 
of  section  9^  at  the  site  of  the  present  residence  of  Mr.  Ed  Keeslar.  When 
preparing  to  erect  his  house  a  few  years  ago,  Mr.  Kesslar  discovered  the  re- 
mains of  the  foundation  of  the  Chase  house.  At  one  spot  he  found  a  depres- 
sion that  required  several  loads  of  earth  to  make  solid,  and  at  this  point  no 
doubt  was  located  the  well  or  perhaps  the  cellar.  As  mentioned  in  the  chap- 
ter on  education,  a  schoolhouse  was  built,  and  this  stood  to  the  south  of  the 
residence,  and  just  west  of  where  Mr.  Kesslar's  barn  now  stands. 

The  bishop  remained  in  this  place  of  "  exile  "  as  he  felt  it  to  be,  for 
three  years.  He  attracted  many  other  settlers  to  this  township  and  his  work 
as  a  pioneer  must  not  be  underestimated,  but  so  far  as  founding  a  church  or 
carrying  out  any  other  ambitious  plans  he  may  have  cherished  on  coming 
here,  his  success  was  little  and  the  members  of  his  church  numbered  only 
a  handful.  Then  in  the  spring  of  1835  came  bis  appointment  as  bishop  of  the 
newly  formed  diocese  of  Illinois,  and  his  acceptance  preceded  by  only  a  few 
months  the  removal  of  his  home  and  active  influence  from  Branch  county. 
He  went  to  Illinois  to  look  over  the  field  of  work,  and  on  returning  to  Gilead 
made  preparations  for  a  visit  to  England,  where  he  spent  the  fall  and  winter 
of  1835  in  soliciting  subscriptions  for  his  new  work. 

While  in  England  the  bishop  received  a  letter  from  his  wife  in  Gilead 
which  cannot  fail  to  be  of  interest  to  those  who  prize  the  history  of  that  por- 
tion of  Branch  county.  This  letter,  containing  so  many  side-lights  on  the 
Gilead  community,  was  dated  December  23,  1835,  and  reads  in  part  as  fol- 
lows : 

"  Last  Saturday  night  we  went  to  bed  in  apparent  security,  but  about 
twelve  o'clock  a  slight  noise,  like  the  kindling  of  a  (ire  in  a  stove,  startled 
me-  I  sprang  from  bed  and  throwing  open  the  dining  room  door,  saw  the 
flames  bad  burst  from  the  upper  part  of  the  chimney  into  the  garret.  A  cry 
of  fire  instandy  assembled  all  the  family.  A  tub  of  water  was  in  the  kitchen, 
and  three  pailsful  in  as  many  seconds  were  thrown  on  the  fire.  It  was,  I  saw 
ill  vain;  the  fire  had  seized  the  roof;  and  I  bid  them  lose  no  time  but  throw 
cut  as  fast  as  possible.  My  first  care  was  your  sermon  box,  and  then  the  box 
of  English  letters,  with  your  letters  to  myself  from  England,  certificates 
and  three  hundred  dollars  in  money  received  for  sales  of  cattle. 


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73-  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

"  The  most  of  our  beds  and  clothing  were  saved.  *  *  *  That  we 
saved  so  much  is  more  to  be  wondered  at  than  that  the  rest  perished,  when  I 
assure  you  that  in  the  judgment  of  the  family  five  minutes  was  the  utmost 
allowed  us  from  the  first  alarm,  until  safety  compelled  us  to  abandon  the 
building.  The  west  wind  soon  wrapped  the  back  kitchen  in  flames,  from 
which  they  saved  but  one  bag  of  flour.  By  tearing  down  the  board  flaming 
fence  the  ruin  was  stayed,  and  the  schoolhouse  and  milkhouse  were  preserved. 
As  soon  as  things  were  moved  back  near  the  well,  we  had  our  beds  taken  to 
the  schoolhouse,  had  a  candle  lighted,  and  tried  to  preserve  our  health  by 
wrapping  up  in  blankets.     *    *    * 

"  With  the  help  of  Mr.  Glass  and  sons,  a  partition  has  been  nailed  up 
(in  the  schoolhouse),  the  floor  laid  double,  two  windows  put  in,  and  every 
hour  adds  something  to  our  comfort.  *  *  *  Eennie,  the  Scotchman,  served 
us  faithfully;  the  other  poor  fellow,  a  Dutchman,  who  was  hired  for  a  few 
days,  on  hearing  the  alarm,  like  most  weak-minded  persons,  was  so  bewildered 
that,  instead  of  going  down  stairs,  which  were  perfectly  safe,  he  threw  him- 
self out  of  the  window  without  even  raising  the  sash.  It  is  a  wonder  he  did 
not  break  his  neck." 

Until  June,  1836,  the  family  lived  in  the  schoolhouse  (which  remained 
standing  until  1877  and  was  used  as  a  dwelling  within  the  memory  of  many 
now  living).  The  bishop  returned  on  the  28th  of  June,  and  a  few  days  later 
the  family  departed,  by  way  of  Chicago  road,  for  the  west.  Thus  ended  the 
Bishop  Chase  episode  in  Gilead  history  and  the  romantic  settlement  which 
was  the  starting  point  of  the  township, 

Gtlead  Township. 

In  a  passage  already  quoted,  Bishop  Chase  mentioned  the  Indian  trail 
which  -he  followed  southeast  from  Adams  Mills  (in  section  29  of  Bronson), 
to  Gilead  lake.  By  noticing  some  of  the  settlers  who  followed  the  bishop 
into  Gilead.  it  will  be  seen  that  this  trail  was  the  important  route  that  directed 
the  pioneers.  Abishi  Sanders,  one  of  the  prominent  Gilead  pioneers  and  the 
first  supervisor  of  that  township,  came  along  the  Chicago  road  from  Marion 
county,  Ohio,  about  the  same  time  as  the  bishop,  and  on  reaching  Bronson's 
prairie,  turned  aside  and  followed  the  trail  into  Gilead,  where  he  entered  two 
hundred  and  forty  acres  of  land  in  sections  8  and  18. 

In  one  of  her  letters  to  the  bishop  Mrs.  Chase  mentions  her  neighbors, 
the  Booth  family.  Benjamin  Booth  started  from  Onondaga  county,  New 
York,  and  came  first  to  Oakland  coimty,  Michigan,  whence  he  journeyed  along 
with  another  Gilead  pioneer,  William  Purdy,  both  intent  on  finding  a  suita- 
ble place  of  settlement.  Arriving  at  Bronson  in  the  spring  of  1832.  they  heard 
of  Bishop  Chase  and  decided  to  make  him  a  visit.  Delighted  with  the  beauti- 
ful country  about  Lake  Gilead,  and  especially  with  the  burr-oak  openings, 
Mr.  Booth  entered  land  and  built  what  was  the  second  frame  house  in  the 
township,  on  the  south  shore  of  Gilead  lake.  Mr.  Purdy  likewise  made  settle- 
ment, being  the  first  blacksmith  of  that  community. 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  73 

In  Mrs.  Chase's  letter  describing  tlie  Inirning  of  the  home,  she  men- 
tiniis  the  faithfulness  of  Mr.  Beiinie.  who  was  then  in  the  employ  of  the 
Chase  estabHshment.  This  was  James  Bennie,  who  with  his  brother-in-law, 
f<ihn  McKiiiley— both  names  being  familiar  to  Gilead  citizens — had  come 
from  Scotland,  and  after  spending  a  few  years  in  New  York  state  came  to 
Cilead  in  18,33.  Mr.  McKinley  made  his' first  location  on  section  8,  while 
Mr.  Bennie  soon  moved  into  Bethel. 

It  is  easy  to  see  how  settlers  coining  from  the  same  locality  in  the  east 
wonld  tend  to  settle  down  in  adjacent  conmnmities  at  the  end  of  their  west- 
ern migration.  The  necessary  isolation  of  pioneer  life  would  be  overcome 
to  some  extent  by  the  grouping  together  of  families  who  had  been  associated 
in  their  old  homes.  This  fact  seems  to  find  illustration  in  the  number  oi 
families  w-hich  Onondaga  county.  New  York,  furnished  to  the  early  settle- 
ment of  Gilead.  Included  in  the  mimber  are  the  well  known  names  of  Ben- 
jamin Booth,  Francis  Bull,  the  Marsh  family — Wallace.  Daniel,  Ebenezer 
and  John — and  William  .Sweeting,  all  of  whom  came  early  and  settled  about 
Lake  Gilead,  on  sections  5.  6,  7,  8  and  18. 

Thus  the  first  Gilead  community  was  formed  on  the  high  rolling  land 
about  the  lake.  But  in  entering  this  part  of  the  county,  some  followed  the 
Indian  trail  on  acmss  the  low.  marshy  land  to  the  east  of  the  Cliase  settle- 
ment, and  locating  near  the  east  line  of  the  township,  formed  the  nucleus 
of  East  Gilead.  The  first  of  these  was  Ezekie!  Fuller,  who  settled  near  the 
Kinderhook  line.  In  1836  came  Benjamin  S.  Wilkins,  who  took  up  land  in 
section  13.  And  in  the  same  year  Samuel  Arnold,  from  New  York  state, 
located  at  the  southeast  corner  of  section  11.  His  name  became  distinctive 
nf  the  locality  of  "Arnold's  Corners."  now  East  Gilead. 

Bv  the  census  of  October,  1837,  there  were  184  persons  in  Gilead  town- 
ship. The  greater  mimber  of  these  were  at  the  original  settlement,  the  Ar- 
nold's Comers  community  being  just  at  the  beginning  of  its  growth.  A 
postotfice  had  been  located  at  the  Chase  home  in  1834,  and  in  some  other 
directions  progress  was  being  made  from  the  first  stages  of  pioneer  existence. 
Included  in  this  census,  besides  the  families  of  those  already  named,  were 
probably  Don  C.  Mather,  who  lived  near  the  south  side  of  the  town  and  was 
a  millwright  by  trade;  Burr  D.  Gray,  a  carpenter  and  joiner,  who  built  some 
nf  the  early  houses  of  Gilead;  Obed  Dickinson,  who,  having  stopped  over 
night  at  the  old  Taylor  Tavern  on  the  Chicago  road,  was  induced  to  buy 
land  in  Bethel  and  Gilead.  and  who  at  this  time  had  the  largest  log  house  in 
the  \'icinity ;  and  Job  Williams,  whose  three  hundred  acres  of  land  were  on 
tiie  north  shore  of  Lake  Gilead. 

GiRARD  Township. 

As  concerns  fertility  of  soil,  ease  of  cultivation  and  drainage,  beautiful 
Girard  prairie,  seventy-five  years  ago  as  to-day,  was  one  of  the  garden  spots 
of  Branch  county.  There  is  little  doubt  that  at  one  time  this  level  area  was 
the  bed  of  a  large  lake,  whose  waters  were  hemmed  in  by  the  encircling  hills 


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74  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

on  all  sides  until  finally  a  cleft  was  made  for  tlie  outlet  at  the  western  end, 
a  short  distance  west  of  the  Hodunk  mills  and  the  junction  of  the  Coldwater 
and  Hog  creek  streams.  When  this  shore  line  was  torn  apart,  the  waters 
gradually  escaped  and  left  a  beautifully  level  floor,  soon  to  be  overspread  by 
luxuriant  vegetation,  in  which  state  it  remained  until  the  appearance  of  white 
settlers. 

Without  conspicuous  advantages  of  nature,  Girard  prairie  would  not 
have  been  one  of  the  first  spots  chosen  for  settlement  in  the  county.  It  was 
situated  five  or  six  miles  north  of  the  Chicago  road.  It  was  not  in  the  line  of 
migration.  Yet  Girard's  history  is  practically  contemporaneous  in  its  begin- 
nings with  that  of  Bronson  and  Coldwater  townships.  The  excellence  of  the 
locality  for  agricultural  purposes  offered  attractions  to  home-seekers  which 
no  other  parts  of  the  county  could  surpass,  and  thus  it  is  that  Girard  was  one 
of  the  first  townships  to  be  organized. 

By  reference  to  the  account  of  the  civil  organization  of  the  townships, 
it  will  be  seen  that  when  Girard  was  organized  in  1834  it  contained  the  entire 
north  tier  of  townships;  that  in  1836  this  long  strip  was  cut  in  half  and  that 
until  1838  Girard  township  comprised  what  is  now  Butler  and  Girard.  Con- 
sequently, the  census  of  October,  1837,  which  gave  448  inhabitants  to  Girard, 
included  also  the  settlers  in  the  present  township  of  Butler.  But  with  few 
exceptions  the  families  enumerated  at  that  date  lived  in  the  central  area  of 
Girard  township. 

The  Corbus  family  was  the  first  and  best  known  of  Girard's  pioneers. 
Joseph  C.  and  Richard  W.  Corbus,  leaving  Detroit,  their  native  home,  came 
along  the  Chicago  road  as  far  as  Hillsdale  county  in  1828.  In  the  following 
spring  Richard  W.  came  to  Girard  prairie.  The  specific  reasons  that  brought 
him  thither  are  not  assigned,  but  it  was  good  judgment  that  directed  him  to 
choose  that  place  for  his  home.  He  did  not  remain  alone  for  long,  and  he 
was  only  the  first  of  a  group  of  strong  and  worthy  pioneers. 

From  a  preceding  chapter  we  know  that  an  Indian  village  existed  on 
the  prairie  at  this  time.  It  consisted  of  about  twenty  huts  and  a  large  dance 
house,  and  was  located  near  the  northwest  comer  of  section  22.  The  Indians 
were  very  friendly,  were  generous  in  sharing  what  they  had,  and  in  one  of 
the  rough  houses  which  was  not  then  in  use  by  an  Jndian  family,  Mr.  Corbus, 
with  his  mother  and  niece,  made  his  first  home.  He  at  once  went  to  work 
to  build  a  log  house  of  his  own,  on  section  21,  and  in  about  six  weeks  after 
his  arrival  it  was  completed  and  ready  for  occupancy.  Richard,  though  the 
first  settler,  remained  only  until  1831,  when,  having  made  aji  exchange  of 
property  with  his  brother,  he  returned  to  Hillsdale  county,  while  Joseph  C. 
continued  the  name  and  activity  of  the  Corbus  family  in  Girard,  His  brother 
John  also  settled  with  him,  but  lived  only  a  year  or  so.  Joseph  C.  Corbus 
was  one  of  the  most  prominent  of  pioneers,  and  .his  name  often  figures  in 
township  and  county  history. 

Thus  the  first  white  settlement  was  located  near  where  the  village  of 
Girard  has  since  grown  up.  This  was  the  favorite  localitv.  and  was  known 
as  the  "  east  prairie,"  to  distinguish  it  from  the  "  west  prairie  "  settlement. 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  75 

which  was  nearer  the  forks  of  the  Coldwater  river  and  Hog  creek.  Edward 
S.  Hanchett  became  a  neighbor  of  Mr.  Corbus  in  the  fall  of  1S30,  locating 
in  section  22,  and  in  July,  1831,  section  15  received  a  noted  settler  in  the 
person  of  James  B.  Tompkins,  the  surveyor  who  platted  the  village  of  Cold- 
water,  who  became  the  first  supervisor  of  Girard  township,  and  whose  own 
career  and  that  of  his  descendants  is  identified  most  honorably  with  this 
part  of  the  county.  His  land  was  partly  in  section  15  and  partly  in  section 
22,  being  covered  in  part  by  the  present  village.  John  Cornish,  the  Quincy 
pioneer  heretofore  mentioned,  had  come  here  about  the  same  time,  but  was 
not  a  permanent  settler.  William  McCarty,  the  first  .sherifT  of  Branch  county, 
also  settled  on  section  15  in  1831. 

Another  well  known  family  that  settled  on  the  "  east  prairie  "  before 
the  censtis  of  1S37  was  taken  was  the  Van  Blarcums,  consisting  of  the  father, 
William,  and  his  sons,  Joseph,  John,  Abram  and  William  W.  The  first 
entry  of  land  in  section.  16  was  made  in  1837  by  Aura  Smith,  who  had  come 
from  Saratoga  county,  New  York,  He  opened  the  first  stock  of  goods  in 
the  township  and  made  the  beginning  of  commercial  enterprise  for  the  village 
of  Girard, 

The  "  w^st  prairie  "  settlement  was  just  as  large  and  important,  and 
almost  as  early,  as  the  one  just  described.  On  the  west  side  of  section  20 
Henry  Van  Hyning  had  located  in  the  latter  part  of  1830,  and  in  January, 
1831,  Martin  Barhhart,  whose  name  has  already  figured  in  other  connections 
with  this  narrative,  located  on  the  section  to  the  north,  section  17.  Barnhart 
was  from  Wayne  county.  New  York,  and  from  the  same  county  was  John 
Parkinson,  who  settled  on  section  i8s  and  was  the  first  postmaster  of  this 
portion  of  the  county. 

Section  20  was  also  the  first  home  of  Benjamin  H.  Smith,  so  well  known 
to  the  early  annals  of  this  township.  A  native  of  New  Jersey,  he  came  from 
Wayne  county,  New  York,  to  Michigan  in-1829,  and  in  1831  settled  in  Girara. 
He  was  an  associate  of  Abram  Aldrich,  Martin  Barnhart,  James  B.  Tompkins, 
J.  W.  Mann  and  Lyman  Fox  in  the  first  mill  building  in  the  township.  Other 
"  west  prairie "  settlers  were  Samue!  and  James  Craig,  who  came  in  the 
spring  of  1831  and  moved  into  the  partially  completed  log  house  begun  by 
Mr.  Van  Hyning  on  section  20. 

Abram  and  Asa  Aldrich,  whose  names  receive  mention  in  connection 
with  other  localities  and  other  affairs,  were  settlerson  section  19  in  1833. 
and  helped  to  increase  the  number  of  aggressive  men  who  were  bent  on  de- 
veloping this  part  of  the  county. 

In  the  line  of  public  improvements  the  most  important  early  event  in 
the  history  of  Girard  township  was  the  establishment,  in  the  summer  of  1831, 
of  what  has  ever  since  been  known  as  the  "  Marshall  road."  This  is  the 
thoroughfare  that  bisects  the  township  from  north  to  south,  passing  through 
the  village  of  Girard,  and  continuing  on  till  it  meets  the  Chicago  road  at 
Coldwater.  Furnishing  the  route  of  immigration  to  the  feriiie  Girard 
prairie,  as  well  as  the  means  of  ready  communication  with  Coldwater  and 
the  central  Chicago  road,  the  Marshall  road  proved  a  great  boon  to  the  devel- 


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7ft  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

opment  and  growth  of  this  township.  This  road  was  surveyed  hy  James  B. 
Tompkins,  and  was  opened  by  the  commissioners  of  highways,  William  H. 
Cross  and  Edward  S.  Hanchett,  all  well  known  to  the  early  history  of  the 
county. 

When  the  first  township  meeting  was  held,  April  7,  1834,  Girard  was, 
as  already  mentioned,  four  times  as  large  as  now.  Several  items  from  the 
record  of  that  meeting  throw  light  on  the  history  of  the  township.  The 
first  is  that  it  was  held  in  a  schoolhouse,  situated  in  the' present  Girard  vil- 
lage. Furthermore,  all  of  those  who  took  official  part,  in  the  proceedings,  with 
one  and  perhaps  two  exceptions,  were  settlers  in  the  area  of  present  Girard 
township  and  on  the  two  "prairies."  John  Parkinson  was  the  moderator 
and  Joseph  C.  Corbus  the  clerk.  The  others  who  were  chosen  for  officers 
were  James  B.  Tompkins,  Benjamin  H.  Smith,  Justus  Goodwin  (from  what 
later  became  Union  township),  James  G.  Corbus,  William  Aldrich,  Robert 
Waldron,  James  McCarty,  Stephen  Hickox,  SamueJ  Craig,  Asa  Aidrich, 
James  Craig,  Martin  Bamhart.  It  was  resolved  to  hold  the  next  town  meet- 
ing at  the  house  of  "  Mr.  Aldrich,  at  the  mill,"  which  was  the  mill  on  the 
site  of  Hodunk. 

From  the  Girard  prairie  as  the  nucleus  the  settlement  spreaiJ  out  over  the 
rest  of  the  township,  and  by  the  end  of  the  thirties  every  section  had  one  or 
more  settlers.  Some  of  the  pioneers  of  this  period  who  have  not  been  men- 
tioned were:  Jabez  Aldrich,  Harris  H.  Aldrich,  Mains  Aldrich,  Lyman  Al- 
drich, Stephen  Birdsall,  D.  B.  Ogden,  Israel  Hoag,  Samuel  Estlow,  William 
Barker,  David  Stanton,  John  Strong,  Allen  Cobb,  Christian  Estlow,  Chaun- 
cey  Barnes,  John  Worden.  John  Moore,  Backus  Fox,  Cornelius  Van  Aken, 
John  B.  Mason,  Jacob  W.  Mann,  Lyman  Fox,  Robert  Gorbal,  Peter  I.  Mann. 
Girard  township  has  always  retained  its  value  and  importance  as  an 
agricultural  center.  It  was  one  of  the  first  townships  to  have  a  grange  organ- 
ization, and  some  of  the  liest  known  farmers  of  the  county  have  had  their 
home  in  Girard. 

Butler  Township. 
In  marked  contrast  with  the  settlement  of  Girard  was  that  of  Butler. 
The  first  settler  came  to  Girard  prairie  in  1829:  it  was  six  years  after  that 
before  permanent  settlers  located  in  Butler.  In  Girard  the  first  settlements 
were  in  one  locality.  No  conspicuous  grouping  of  settlers  can  be  observed 
in  Butler.  Girard  prajrie  was  beautifully  level,  comparatively  free  from 
heavy  timl^er,  and  had  a  natural  drainage.  Butler  township,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  "  Shock's  prairie  "  in  sections  26  and  27,  was  densely  wooded ; 
the  topography  such  that  large  areas  were  under  water  or  in  a  swampv  condi- 
tion, and,  as  elsewhere  stated,  Buder  township  has  received  incalculable  bene- 
fits from  the  public  drainage  works. 

Such  natural  conditions  did  not  favor  early  settlement.  And  vet  when 
the  era  of  settlement  was  completed  and  the  population  of  the  county  had 
assumed  something  like  its  present  standard,  Butler  township  had  a  few  more 
inhabitants  than  Girard.  Its  property  valuation  has  increased  to  a  remarka- 
ble extent  since  the   introduction  of   scientific  drainage.      The  forests   have 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  77 

been  cleared  off  and  given  place  to  fine  farms.  Some  of  the  most  productive 
land  in  the  township  was  formerly  swamp  and  considered  unfit  for  any  in- 
dustrial purpose.  The  township  is  agricultural:  a  very  small  part  of  the 
population  is  grouped  in  the  two  hamlets  known  as  Butler  and  South  Butler. 
Several  stave  and  heading  and  cooperage  mills  and  saw  mills  have  found 
a  iiatiiral  field  in  this  township  at  various  periods  of  history,  but  aside  from 
this  department  of  manufacture  the  industry  of  the  township  has  been  almost 
entirely  the  tilling  of  the  soil.  With  this  general  understanding  of  the  town's 
history  as  a  whole,  we  may  speak  briefly  of  the  period  of  Iwginnings  and  the 
first  settlers. 

Wayne  county,  New  York,  furnished  a  majority  of  the  pioneers  of  But- 
ler township,  which  was  given  its  name  to  commemorate  the  home  town  of 
Butler,  New  York.  From  Wayne  county  came  Caleb  Wilcox,  the  first  set- 
tler, who  found  a  home  in  section  2  in  the  spring  of  1836;  he  did  not  remain 
long,  but  sold  out  to  Charles  C.  Hayes  and  moved  away. 

The  southeast  corner  of  the  township  was  favored  with  settlement  about 
the  same  time.  In  sections  26  and  27  settle<l  Jacob  Shook,  whose  name 
ligures  in  county  history  as  one  of  the  few  county  judges  that  Branch  county 
had.  He  was  also  prominent  in  township  affairs.  At  the  same  time  Robert 
Wootl  settled  in  the  same  locality,  buying  land  in  sections  35  and  36.  Ail 
three  of  the  men  mentioned  were  from  Wayne  county.  New  York.  George 
Lockwood  came  to  this  part  of  the  town  in  the  fall  of  1836  and  for  half  a 
century  was  a  well  known  citizen. 

Calhonn  county  on  the  north  furnished  not  a  few  early  settlers  to  Butler, 
among  these  being  the  Rossman  family,  consisting  of  Isaac,  the  father,  and 
the  sons,  Thomas  J.,  Solander  and  William,  who  had  located  in  Calhoun 
county  about  1833,  and  all  came  to  Butler  township  before  1839.  From 
the  same  county  came  Henry  S.  Lampman,  another  well  known  pioneer  of 
Butler,  who  was  originally  from  Green  county.  New  York,  and  who  spent 
several  yeai;s  in  Calhoun  county  before  removing  to  Butler  in  December,  1836. 

John  T.,  Asa  and  Charles  M.  Wisner  were  active  and  influential  in  early 
township  and  business  affairs;  Asa  being  the  first  township  clerk  and  Charles 
M.  the  first  school  teacher.  David  Lindsay,  the  first  supervisor,  who  located  on 
section  15.  opened  the  first  store  at  what  is  now  South  Butler  (then  known 
^s  Whig  Center)  in  1843. 

The  first  town  meeting  was  held  at  David  iLindsay's  house  in  April,  1838. 
There  were  only  twenty  voters  in  the  town.  Most  of  these  received  office, 
and  the  names  of  those  who  were  burdened  with  the  official  managment  of 
the  town  for  the  first  year  of  its  organized  existence  will  be  a  fairly  complete 
record  of  the  pioneer  settlers.  They  were :  John  T.  Wisner,  southeast  But- 
ler: Jesse  Bowen,  sec.  36;  Asa  R.  Wisner,  sec.  24;  Tyler  McWhorter,  sec. 
35:  David  Lindsay,  sec.  15:  Jacob  Shook,  sees.  26  and  27;  T.  J.  Rossman, 
sec.  14;  Charles  M.  Wisner.  sec.  24:  Solander  Rossman,  sees.  12  and  13; 
Henry  S.  Lampman,  sec.   14:  Daniel  Shook,  sec.  26;  Caleb  Wilcox. 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 


CHAPTER  XII. 

SETTLEMENT  AND  BEGINNINGS   (CONTINUED). 

Union  Township. 

In  October,  1837.  the  ni'niber  of  persons  residing  in  Union  township 
was  260.  The  town  had  already  heen  or^iiized  with  its  present  boundaries, 
so  tbo^e  figures  apply  to  the  Union  township  as  we  now  know  it.  The  popu- 
lation has  since  increased  more  than  ten  times,  and  material  development 
has  been  even  greater. 

Though  topographically  one  of  the  most  attractive  townships  in  the 
county,  Union  was  not  easily  accessible  for  several  years  after  the  heavy 
stream  of  immigration  began  and  the  dense  woods  that  covered  its  fertile 
soil  were  here,  as  in  Butler  and  elsewhere,  an  impediment  to  early  settlement. 
The  abundant  water  power  furnished  by  the  St.  Joseph  and  Coldwater  rivers 
had  undoubtedly  induced  a  considerable  proportion  of  the  first  inhabitants  to 
locate  in  this  town.  The  principal  centers  of  settlement  were  at  the  junction 
of  the  Coldwater  with  the  St.  Joseph — ^Union  City — at  the  junction  of  Hoff 
creek  with  Coldwater  river- — the  Hodunk  community — and  the  more  open 
countrv  in  the  southwest  part  of  the  township. 

The  Chicago  road  could  not  influence  settlement  in  this  township  to  the 
extent  that  was  true  of  the  townships  previously  described.  The  State  road, 
tliat  follows  an  angling  course  from  Hodunk  to  Union  City,  forming  part  of 
the  route  from  Kalamazoo  to  the  state  line,  was  not  authorized,  until  1837. 
Communication  with  the  centra!  part  of  the  county  was  by  the  haphazard 
windings  of  Indian  trails  or  blazed  paths  through  the  woods.  The  first 
regular  road  into  Union  township  was  probably  the  state  road  that  followed 
the  course  of  the  old  Washtenaw  Indian  trail,  and  was  laid  out  in  1834  from 
Jackson  to  White  Pigeon  through  Union  City.  This  road  and  its  predecessor, 
the  Indian  trail,  as  well  as  the  St.  Joseph  river,  which  was  utilized  for  trans- 
portation to  no  inconsiderable  extent  in  the  early  days,  brought  north  Union 
township  in  connection  with  Calhoun  and  other  second-tier  counties  and  many 
of  the  earlier  settlers  came  along  that  way.  The  building  of  the  railroad, 
in  1870.  along  practically  the  same  route  strengthened  the  commercial  connec- 
tion with  the  towns  and  cities  along  that  line. 

It  was  at  the  confluence  cff  the  Coldwater  and  the  St.  Joseph  rivers  that 
settlement  was  first  made.  Because  of  its  accessibility  by  water  this  spot  had 
been  conspicuous  for  many  years.  Perhaps  the  French  missionaries  of  the 
eighteenth  century  had  penetrated  this  far.  and  it  is  reasonably  certain  that 
French  traders  had  a  trading  post  at  this  point.     A  successor  to  these  Indian 


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■      'U 

HJL      li 


Congregational  Cliurcli^and  Soldiers' 
Monument,  Union  City 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  T9 

traders.  John  Clawaon,  was  located  at  tlie  mouth  of  the  Coldwater  about 
1830,  and  it  has  been  customary  to  grant  him  the  honor  of  being  the  first 
settler  in  Union  township. 

Abont  1831  Isaiah  W.  Bennett,  a  well  known  pioneer  character  and  the 
founder  of  the  city  of  Jackson,  and  Jeremiah  Marvin  bought  a  large  tract  of 
land  about  the  forks  of  the  two  rivers.  Tliey  understood  the  advantages 
offered  by  the  site  for  commercial  and  industrial  development,  and  bought 
the  land  with  the  intention  no  doubt  of  personally  exploiting  a  village  at  this 
point.  Bennett  did  not  locate  here  until  1834.  He  kept  the  old  Union  City 
House  in  1837,  and  later  a  store  on  the  southwest  comer  of  Broadway  and 
High  streets. 

!n  the  meantime,  in  1833,  the  first  permanent  settler  had  come  to  the 
site  of  Union  City,  He  purchased  of  Bennett  and  Marvin  a  large  tract  of 
land,  including  the  present  site  of  the  business  section,  and  began  the  work 
of  improvement.  According  to  his  own  notes,  when  he  came  here  in  May, 
1S33,  with  the  exception  of  two  settlers  and  a  few  settlers  on  Dry  prairie 
there  were  no  persons  between  his  location  and  Homer,  all  being  "  an  un- 
liroken  wilderness,  chiefly  government  land,  and  no  road  made  nor  even  laid 
out." 

Let  the  historical  notes  of  Mr.  Goodwin  carry  the  narrative  a  httle 
further:  "  Early  in  the  fall  of  1834  J.  Goodwin,  having  agreed  to  build  and 
sell  a  saw  mill  at  Union  to  I.  W.  Bennett,  commenced  improving  the  water 
power  by  making  a  race  and  building  a  saw  mill. (the  mill  being  located  south 
of  the  Coldwater  road  and  about  where  the  municipal  power  plant  now 
stands).  In  doing  this  work — or  rather  the  first  part  of  it— though  from  ten 
to  twenty  men  were  at  work,  there  was  no  woman  at  Union.  *  *  * 
Alxjut  the  first  of  December  of  that  year  a  postoffice  was  estabhshed  by  the 
name  of  Goodwinsville,  and  J.  Goodwin  appointed  postmaster,  who  held  that 
office  until  1846." 

In  November,  1833,  Mr.  Goodwin  had  sold  to  E.  W.  Morgan  of  Ann 
Arbor  322  acres  of  land,  and  in  1835  Mr.  Morgan  platted  a  village  to  which 
the  name  Goodwinsville  w-as  given,  the  plat  being  recorded  August  27,  1835. 
This  was  the  first  plat.  In  the  spring  of  1837  the  "  village  of  Union  City  " 
wits  platted  on  a  "  two  hundred  acre  tract "  that  had  been  purchased  by  a 
company  of  eastern  men  with  the  purpose  of  founding  a  village  and  develop- 
ing the  mill  facilities  of  the  place.  The  men  most  prominent  in  this  transac- 
tion were  Israel  W,  Clark  and  Isaac  M.  Dimond,  both  of  whom  came  here 
in  1838  and  with  a  targe  force  of  men  began  extensive  improvements.  The 
water  power  was  improved  and  both  a  saw  and  a  grist  mill  built,  A  store 
was  established  by  the  comj>any,  in  addition  to  one  or  two  that  had  been  con- 
ducted previously  by  individuals.  The  "  company  "  store,  which  was  kept 
by  John  N.  Stickney,  was  located  on  the  northeast  corner  of  Broadway  and 
High  streets,  opposite  the  hotel. 

Other  settlers  during  the  pioneer  period  of  Union  City,  were  various 
members  of  the  well  known  Hurd  family,  some  of  whom  lived  over  the  line 
ill  Calhoun  county  but  whose  interests  were  closely   identified  with  Union 


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80  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

City — namely,  Horner  C.  Hurd.  Dr.  William  P.  Hurd  and  Dr.  Theodore 
C.  Hurd.  Chester  Hammond;  originally  from  Chenango  county.  New  York, 
located  in  Union  City  in  1836.  His  son.,  Charles  G.  Hammond,  was  agent 
for  the  company  that  purchased  the  village  site  m  January,  1837,  and  he 
did  as  much  to  establish  the  town  and  further  its  interests  as  any  other  pioneer 
citizen. 

From  this  chief  center,  whose  subsequent  history  will  be  recorded  else- 
where, we  turn  to  other  portions  of  the  township.  In  the  history  of  Girard 
we  have  aiiuded  to  the  prominence  of  the  Aklrich  family  as  settlers  and 
citizens  on  the  west  sijJe  of  the  prairie. "  Abram  Aldrich.  who  had  located  and 
purchased  lands  on  Girard  prairie  in  1833.  built  his  home  just  over  the  town 
line  in  Union  township,  and  became  the  tirst  settler  at  what  became  known 
as  Orangeville  and  later  as  Hodunk.  Here,  near  the  confluence  of  the  Cold- 
water  and  Hog  creek,  he  built  a  saw  mill.  Lumber  from  this  mill  went  into 
buildings  in  many  parts  of  the  county.  When  James  G.  Corbus.  the  Quincy 
pioneer,  built  his  frame  house  in  18-33,  '^^  obtained  his  lumlier  from  this  mill. 
Several  years  later  Mr.  Aldrich  built  a  grist  mill,  which  was  a  story  and  a 
half  in  height.  It  was  the  second  grist  mil!  in  the  county,  and  began  grinding 
in  1837.  Its  product  was  superior  to  that  turned  out  by  the  old  Black  Hawk 
mill  at  Branch,  and  it  drew  a  large  patronage  from  all  over  the  county. 
This  mill  was  the  predecessor  of  the  present  "  Hodunk  Roller  Mills."  a  five- 
story  structure,  which  was  erected  by  Roland  Root  in  1847.  after  the  first 
mill  had  burned.  Nearly  sixty  years  of  use  have  caused  many  changes  in  the 
Hodunk  mill.  The  old  millstones  have  been  removed,  modern  roller  pro- 
cesses have  been  introduced,  and  the  old-fashioned  water  wheel  has  given 
place  to  the  powerful  turbine.  The  mill  building  is  a  striking  witness  of  these 
changes  of  more  than  half  a  century,  for  some  of  the  old  machinery  is  stiil 
to  be  found  on  the  floors,  and  the  location  of  former  mechanical  parts  and 
their  wear  on  the  woodwork  have  not  been  entirely  obliterated. 

In  the  southwestern  part  of  the  township  there  settled  beginning  with 
1836  a  very  prominent  group  of  men,  including  AJpheus  Saunders,  Lewis 
Hawley,  David  Kilboum,  Archibald  and  W.  M.  Mitchell.  Two  other  names 
that  have  been  closely  identified  with  this  part  of  the  township  as  well  as 
with  Union  City  are  those  of  Lincoln  and  Buell,  Thomas  B.,  Chauncev  and 
Justus  Buell  came  to  Union  City  in  1836.  their  original  home  having'  been 
Chenango  county.  New  York.  Thomas  and  Chauncey  purchased  land  in  sec- 
tion 30.  Justice  Buell  came  to  the  township  with  Charles  A.  Lincoln,  who 
was  also  from  Chenango  county  and  became  a  well  known  and  useful  citizen 
in  this  county.  He  was  a  carpenter  and  helped  build  the  first  Union  City 
House  and  the  Red  Schoolhouse,  and  spent  many  years  of  his  life  on  section 
17.  Caleb  Lincoln,  his  brother,  is  also  well  remembered  as  one  of  Union's 
pioneer  citizens. 

In  April,  1837,  the  first  town  meeting  was  held  in  the  town  of  Union, 
and  the  names  of  the  official  participants  no  doubt  represent  the  principal 
heads  of  families  who  were  enumerated  under  the  census  of  1837.  Chester 
Hammond  was  moderator  of  the  meeting,  while  Briant  Bartiett  was  clerk 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  81 

ami  the  inspectors  of  election  were  Alpheus   Saunders,   Isaiali  W.   Bennett    ■ 
and  Lewis  Hawley.  Then  the  Hst  of  officers  chosen  for  the  succeeding  year  in- 
cluded, tjesides  these,  the  following  pioneers:     Solomon  Parsons,  James  Pen- 
clell.  Henry  Rcaser,  Rufus  Hill,  Thomas  Buell,  Henry  W.  Potter,  Archibald 
M,  JNIitcheil,  Carpenter  Chaffee,  Gideon  Smith.  Chauncey  Buell. 

SnERWOOo  Township. 

The  pioneer  history  of  Sherwood  township  has  more  in  common  with 
Calhoun  county  than  with  Branch.  Here  the  influence  of  topography  and 
means  of  communication  upon  settlement  is  seen  with  peculiar  em- 
phasis. The  north  tier  of  sections  in  Sherwood  belongs,  topographically, 
to  "  Dry  Prairie,"  which  is  also  a  conspicuous  feature  of  Athens  township 
in  Calhoun  county.  From  a  reference  already  slated  in  the  history  of  Union 
township,  it  is  known  that  Dry  prairie  was  one  of  the  early  settled  regions. 
It  had  a  considerable  group  of  settlers  as  early  as  1832,  though  nearly  all 
li\-ed  in  Calhoun  county. 

This  region  of  oak  openings  and  arable  land  was  not  the  only  reason 
for  early  settlement.  The  "  territorial "  road  that  pursues  an  angling  course 
from  Union  City  westward  along  the  northern  part  of  this  township  into  St. 
Joseph  county  was  laid  out  about  1834.  An  old  Indian  trail  was  its  basis. 
This  was  a  much  traveled  route,  and  many  emigrants  along  its  course  chose 
homes  in  Sherwood  township.  Another  important  early  road  was  that  which 
followed  approximately  along  the  northern  liank  of  the  St  Joseph  river. 

It  was  in  the  northern  sections  of  the  town,  therefore,  that  the  first 
settlers  located.  The  first  was  Alexander  E.  Tomlinson,  who  in  the  spring 
of  1832  left  his  home  in  "  Sherwood  Forest,"  England,  and  in  the  following 
July  arrived  at  Dry  prairie.  When  this  township  was  organized  four  years 
later  he  was  allowed  to  give  it  the  name  which  suggested  his  English  home. 

In  section  2,  Mr.  F.  C.  Watkins  located  a  farm  in  1835,  and  on  the  terri- 
torial road  kept  for  eighteen  years  what  was  well  known  as  the  "  log  tavern." 
The  settlement  increased  rapidly  and  Sherwood  had  a  considerable  population 
before  its  neighbor.  Union,  had  fairly  started.  Among  the  names  of  early 
pioneers  may  be  mentioned  Joseph  D.  Lane,  Clement  Russell,  Robert  Wal- 
dron.  who  came  in  1833;  Joseph  Russell  and  William  Minor,  in  1834; 
Thomas  West,  Geo.  Moyer,  Benjamin  Blossom,  in  1835;  followed  in  the 
\Kxt  few  years  by  John  Giltner,  Thomas  Lee,  John  and  Nahum  Sargent, 
David  Keyes,  David  R.  Cooley,  Ira  Palmer,  and  many  others.  I.  D.  Beall, 
:ifterward  so  well  known  in  the  public  affairs  of  his  township,  settled  along 
the  St.  Joseph  road  in  section  30  in  1837. 

All  these  settlers  were  north  of  the  St.  Joseph  river,  and  the  central 
group  was  on  Dry  prairie.  John  Onderdonk  and  Ephraim  Plank  were 
probably  the  only  settlers  living  south  of  the  river  who  were  enumerated 
in  the  census  of  October,  1837,  at  which  time  Sherwood  township  had  217 
inhabitants.  This  number  was  only  slightly  less  than  the  similar  census 
(inures  in  Union.     The  latter  township  began  to  be  settled  at  a  later  date, 


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82  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

but  grew  more  rapidly  each  succeeding  decade,  until  in  1S70  it  showed  twice 
as  many  inhabitants  as  Sherwood. 

The  first  township  meeting  of  Sherwood  (with  the  government  town- 
ship of  Union  attached)  was  held  in  1836.  The  records  for  the  first  years 
have  not  been  preserved,  and  no  deductions  can  be  drawn  from  the  first  civil 
proceedings.  The  second,  and'  perliaps  the  first,  supervisor  of  the  township 
was  the  late  Hiram  Doubleday,  conspicuously  successful  for  many  years  in 
Sherwood  and  Union  as  farmer,  business  man  and  public-spirited  citizen. 
He  had  come  to  Calhoun  county  in  1832,  and  moved  into  Sherwood  four 
or  five  years  later,  purchasing  land  in  sections  2  and  4. 

The  history  of  the  village  of  Sherwood,  which  belongs  to  a  later  period, 
is  given  in  another  part  of  this  volume. 

Matteson  Township. 

In  common  with  the  other  townships  of  the  county,  Matteson  has  been 
"  settled  "  for  many  years.  Only  its  oldest  residents  can  remember  the  time 
when  the  land  was  not  all  taken  up  and  farm  houses  and  tilled  fields  were  not 
to  be  seen  in  every  direction.  With  a  knowledge  of  present  conditions  only, 
the  casual  obseryer  would  with  difficulty  select  any  portion  of  the  township 
that  is  historically  older  than  the  rest;  for  the  superficial  aspects,  the  evi- 
dences of  material  development,  are  generally  the  same  throughout  the  town. 
The  settlement  of  a  country  has  often  been  compared  to  an  overflood  of 
water.  Like  all  similes,  this  cannot  be  appHed  too  exactly.  Settlement  does 
not  proceed  like  a  tide,  covering  all  points  in  its  course  and  in  regular  order 
from  the  source.  It  is  rather  a  selective  process,  much  as  a  winged  seed 
is  carried  in  the  air  miles  from  its  parent  stalk,  finally  lodges  and  germinates 
and  becomes  a  new  source  of  plant  life  and  its  distribution.  The  pioneers 
did  not,  on  finding  one  section  filled  up,  always  pass  to  the  next  contiguous 
one  and  thus  always  keep  in  close  touch  with  the  main  nucleus.  But  rather, 
as  has  been  repeatedly  illustrated  in  this  history,  considerations  of  soil,  topog- 
raphy, communication  and  other  grounds  would  induce  one  or  more  home- 
seekers  to  press  on  beyond  a  community  that  had  already  been  established  and 
break  out  a  place  of  habitation  in  some  new  locality,  perhaps  miles  away 
from  other  settlements.  Such  was  true  of  Matteson  township,  and  the  his- 
tory of  its  early  settlement  has  some  individual  features  that  are  interesting 
and  instructive. 

Entering  the  western  side  of  the  township  in  section  18  was,  at  the  time 
the  first  white  men  knew  this  country,  an  Indian  trail,  often  called  the  "  Kal- 
amazoo "  trail.  The  course  of  this  trail  southeastwardly  through  Bronson 
township  and  thence  to  the  state  line  has  elsewhere  been  alluded  to,  also  its 
prominence  in  connection  with  the  settlement.  This  trail  has  been  partly 
preserved  and  adapted  to  modem  conditions,  for  the  angling  road  that  passes 
out  of  the  township  in  section  18,  toward  Colon  in  St.  Joseph  county,  follows 
af^roximately  this  Indian  trail,  which  originally  continued  its  course  south 
of  Matteson  lake.     About  1837  a  state  road  was  laid  out  over  part  of  this 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  83 

trait,  this  being  the  weli  traveled  highway  leading  west  from  Coldwater 
through  Matteson  postoffice  and  out  of  the  township  and  county  by  the 
angling  road  just  mentioned.  Not  only  this  state  road  but  the  Indian  trail 
pla^yed  a  large  part  in  the  early  settlement  of  Matteson,  and  because  of  their 
significance  this  brief  description  is  an  apposite  preface  to  the  pioneer  set- 
tlement. 

Along  the  Indian  trail,  in  section  i8  and  adjoining  portions  of  the  town- 
ship, lay  a  large  area  of  oak  openings,  always  attractive  to  the  pioneers  as 
))laces  of  settlement.  In  the  fall  of  1834  Robert  Watson,  from  western 
I'ennsylvania,  was  seeking  a  home  in  Michigan  and,  passing  through  this 
region,  chose  to  inake  his  land  entry  on  section  18  in  the  southwest  quarter. 
In  September,  1835,  he  brought  his  family  from  Pennsylvania  to  Detroit  and 
thence  followed  the  Chicago  road  until  he  could  branch  off  on  the  trail  which 
led  him  to  his  new  location.  He  built  a  story-and-a-half  log  house  near  the 
trail,  along  which  during  the  first  years  of  his  residence  it  was  a  common  sight 
to  see  large  bands  of  Indians  passing  from  one  camp  ground  to  another. 

By  the  time  Mr.  Watson  (who  continued  a  resident  of  this  township 
until  his  death  in  the  eighties)  had  arrived  to  begin  actvtal  residence,  two 
other  settlers  and  families  had  come  and  taken  up  land  on  the  same  section. 
These  were  Nathaniel  Tiimer  and  Abiathar  Culver,  both  of  whom  were 
identified  closely  with  the  upbuilding  of  the  town  and  left  descendants  who 
are  well  known  in  the  county.  They  were  from  Ontario  county.  New  York, 
and  the  date  of  their  settlement  in  Matteson  was  in  the  fall  of  1835,  shortly 
before  the  return  of  Mr.  Watson.  The  three  of  them  assisted  each  other  in 
estalilishing  themselves  according  to  pioneer  fashion  and  in  erecting  their 
lirst  houses.  Mr,  Watson  rendered  especially  valuable  assistance,  being 
trained  to  the  trades  of  millwright,  cabinet-making  and  carpentering. 

That  was  the  banning  of  settlement  in  the  west  part  of  the  town- 
ship. In  the  spring  of  1836  Amos  Matteson,  a  native  of  Rhode  Island  but 
directly  from  Otsego  county.  New  York,  came  to  Branch  county  and  settled 
Oil  the  west  shore  of  the  lake  which  now  bears  his  name.  A  man  of  mature 
\ears  and  with  the  natural  worth  and  experience  which  made  him  influential 
among  hts  fellow  citizens,  it  came  about  that  when  a  name  was  sought  for 
the  newly  organized  township  his  friends  honored  him  by  transferring  the 
name  of  its  leading  citizen  to  the  town. 

In  the  fall  of  1836  Mr.  Matteson  obtained  a  neighbor  in  the  person  of 
Hiram  Gardner,  who  settled  about  a  mile  north  on  section  11.  Mrs.  Gard- 
ner was  a  daughter  of  Amos  Matteson.  The  Gardner  family  has  also  been 
prominent  in  the  township  from  pioneer  times  to  the  present,  both  Hiram 
and  his  son  Amos  having  served  as  supervisor  at  different  times. 

On  the  east  side  of  Matteson  lake  at  this  time  there  was  another  settler, 
John  Corson,  whose  family  was  long  well  known  in  that  vicinity.  In  the 
same  neighborhood,  but  in  section  13,  James  K.  Bennett,  of  Ontario  county, 
New  York,  located  in  1838.  His  log  house  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  east 
of  the  "  corners  "  was  doubtless  the  first  structure  in  the  settlement  that  has 
since  become  dignified  with  the  name  of  Matteson  postoffice.  His  son,  C.  C. 


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84  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

Bennett  was  the  second  postmaster  at  the  "  corners,"  the  office  having  been 
established  at  that  point  about  1S55.  A  saw  mill,  a  store,  blacksmith  shop, 
etc.,  have  at  various  times  given  a  business  aspect  to  this  spot,  but  it  never 
attained  the  dignity  of  a  village  and  a  few  years  ago,  when  rural  free  delivery 
was  extended  over  the  county,  even  the  postoffice  was  discontinued. 

It  will  be  noticed  that  the  early  settlers  were  mostly  located  along  the 
State  road  through  the  central  part  of  the  township,  and  until  the  inflow  of 
settlers  became  so  great  that  little  distinction  as  to  location  could  be  made  the 
population  of  the  township  was  very  noticeably  concentrated  along  this  road. 
No  statement  as  to  the  number  of  inhabitants  in  Matteson  in  1837  can  be 
made,  for  at  that  time  the  township  was  a  part  of  Bronson,  which  then  had 
635  population.  Just  what  share  of  this  number  lived  in  Matteson  cannot 
be  determined,  but  it  was  small,  for  when  the  town  of  Matteson  was  formally 
organized  in  the  spring  of  1838  there  were  hardly  enough  active  citizens  to  fill 
the  official  positions. 

The  first  township  meeting  was  held  in  April,  1838,  at  the  house  of 
Abiathar  Culver,  located,  as  we  know,  at  the  western  side  of  the  township. 
Nearly  all  those  who  took  part  are  familiar  to  the  reader  from  the  preceding 
narrative.  Amos  Matteson  was  moderator  of  the  meeting,  with  Robert  Wat- 
son as  clerk;  Jphn  Corson,  James  GilHs  and  Hiram  Gardner  were  inspectors 
of  election.  Those  elected,  besides  the  ones  just  named,  to  fill  the  various 
offices  were,  Joseph  Rudd,  Ephraim  Cline,  John  Vaughan,  I^zarus  Everhart, 
John  Stailey,  Charles  F.  Jackson,  Ashley  Turner  (son  of  Nathaniel),  Thomas 
E.  Watson,  James  L.  Gillis,  Abiathar  Culver,  Nelson  Washburn. 

KiNDERHOOK  ToWNSHIP. 

With  reference  to  the  early  history  of  Kinderhook  township  the  follow- 
ing extract  from  a  letter  written  by  Mrs.  Chase  to  Bishop  Chase  on  October 
21.  1S35,  furnishes  some  interesting  though  not  necessarily  literally  accurate 
information:  "How  many  thousands,"  she  exclaims,  "are  flocking  to  this  land 
of  promise,  without  a  shelter  or  any  provision  for  the  coming  season !  Tlie 
Indian  village  Episcopiscon,  six  miles  east,  had  not  a  white  inhabitant  when 
you  left  this  May;  there  are  now  more  than  forty  families.  And  I  hear  from 
Coldwater  that  sixty  families  often  pass  through  in  a  single  day  bound  west." 

Many  continued  along  the  Indian  trail  that  led  Bishop  Chase  into  Gilead, 
and  found  advantageous  sites  for  settlement  in  the  region  that  later  became 
Kinderhook  township.  As  Mrs.  Chase  said,  settlement  did  not  begin  there 
until  1835,  bnt  in  that  and  the  following  year  it  is  probable  that  more  than 
half  the  land  of  the  township  was  taken  up.  The  presence  of  the  Indians  in 
the  vicinity  of  the  present  Kinderhook  postoffice,  as  also  the  large  amount  of 
water  and  marshy  surface  which  was  a  more  marked  feature  of  the  town  in 
the  early  days  than  now,  may  have  combined  to  retard  settlement. 

Some  of  those  who  entered  land  in  this  township  in  1835  were  George 
Tripp,  Boaz  Lampson,  David  Tift.  Hiram  Canwright,  George  Matthews, 
Joshua  Baker,  Sherldon  Williams,  Joseph  Hawks,  Oliver  Johnson,  Jacob  Hall, 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  S5 

Hiram  Baker.  The  sections  adjacent  to  t!ie  old  Indian  village  were  most 
favorer!  bv  the  pioneers.  When  George  Tripp,  whose  name  is  one  of  the 
ini)st  familiar  among  those  of  Kinderhook  pioneers,  arrived  in  1835  he  found 
otdy  three  settlers  who  had  precedeci  him,  namely.  Joshua  Baker,  Sheldon  Will- 
iams and  Boaz  Lainpson.  Others  came  during  "that  year,  although  it  is  hardly 
possible  that  there  were  forty  families  here  at  the  time  Mrs.  Chase  wrote. 

Of  those  who  came  the  first  year  George  Ti'ipp  became  very  prominent 
ill  township  afliairs  and  successful  in  private  business.  His  brother  David 
came  to  the  township  in  1S36.  In  the  same  year  came  John  Waterhouse,  from 
Oswego  county.  New  York,  and  purchased  the  land  where  in  time  the  hamlet 
of  \\'ater]ionse  Corners  grew'  up,  this  afterward  being  changed  to  Kinder- 
hook  Postoffice. 

Joseph  S.  Hawks,  who  was  a  native  of  Otsego  county.  New  York,  lo- 
cated his  land  on  the  banks  of  Silver  lake,  in  sections  10  and  15.  Almeron 
W.  Case,  of  Livingston  county.  New  York,  came  in  1837.  locating  in  section 
3,  half  a  mile  from  the  Corners.  Others  who  belong  among  the  prominent 
pioneers,  either  assisting  in  the  organization  of  the  township  or  being  identified 
with  its  life  through  a  long  period,  were  William  Chase,  who  came  to  the 
township  in  1841 :  O.  B.  Clark,  who  was  an  early  settler  l)uf  whose  career 
was  mainly  identified  with  the  city  of  Coldwater;  Oliver  D.  Colvin,  and 
others. 

As  elsewhere  stated,  Kinderhook  was  one  of  the  last  townships  to  be  organ- 
ized, the  legislative  act  for  that  purpose  being  dated  iu  February,  1842.  The 
township  received  its  name  from  the  birthplace  of  Martin  Van  Buren,  then 
presidential  candidate,  and  not  because  any  considerable  proportion  of  the 
settlers  were  of  Holland  extraction  or  were*  from  Kinderhook.  New  York,  or 
vicinity. 

Tlie  first  town  meeting  was  held  in  April,  1842,  and  the  official  list  com- 
lirises  in  the  main  those  who  were  foremost  in  the  affairs  of  the  township  at 
the  time.  Oliver  D.  Colvin  was  the  first  supervisor,  and  the  other  offices 
were  filled  by  George  Tripp,  Almeron  W.  Case,  William  Chase,  Ira  Bonner, 
David  Tripp,  Ellery  Patterson  (who  entered  land  in  1841),  Isaac  Eslow,  Jolm 
I).  Depue  (a  settler  of  1836),  Arba  L.  Lampson,  Bentley  Reynolds,  Lathrop 
G.  Fish.  Hiram  Canwright,  John  Waterhouse.  Jr.,  John  Bradley. 

Kinderhook  has  always  been  an  agricultural  community.  Aside  from  the 
settlement  at  Kinderhook  postoffice.  which  has  experienced  the  usual  business 
activity  and  general  importance  of  a  rural  center,  and  leaving  out  of  consid- 
eration the  several  mills  for  the  manufacture  of  lumber  or  fJour  which  at 
various  times  and  in  different  locations  have  existed  in  the  township,  the 
occupations  of  the  people  of  Kinderhook  have  been  essentially  agricultural, 
and  the  progressive  men  and  the  leading  citizens  have  with  few  exceptions 
been  farmers. 

Ovid  Township. 

It  is  a  remarkable  fact,  therefore  one  permitting  repetition,  that  certain 
townships  of  Branch  county  were  settled  within  a  year  or  so  after  the  first 


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86  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

land  entry  was  made ;  by  a  "settled"  condition  would  be  meant  that  on  nearly 
every  Section  in  the  town  would  be  found  one  or  more  famihes,  and  that  the 
time  of  biazing  pathways  through  the  wilderness  and  groping  about  in  un- 
certainty for  homes  was  past. 

This  was  true  of  Ovid  township.  Coldwater  village  was  an  ambitious 
village,  with  an  energetic  though  smalt  population,  and  with  several  busi- 
ness enterprises,  before  the  first  permanent  settlers  had  located  in  the  wilder- 
ness to  the  south  and  become  pioneers  in  what  was  organized  by  the  legisla- 
ture in  March,  1837,  as  Ovid  township.  But  in  1835,  1836  and  1837  such 
a  number  of  immigrants  came  in  that  when  the  census  of  October,  1837,  was 
taken  Ovid  township  (which  then  included  the  as  yet  unorganized  town  of 
Kinderhook)  contained  209  inhabitants. 

The  proximity  of  the  villages  of  Coldwater  and  Branch  no  doubt  had 
some  influence  in  directing  this  settlement,  the  more  so  from  the  fact  that  the 
early  settlements  of  Ovid  were  grouped  in  the  northwestern  corner  of  the 
township,  largly  in  the  sections  traversed  by  the  Coldwater  river.  In  this 
part  of  the  town  Howard  Bradley  and  Richard  and  Nelson  Salsberry  settled 
about  1834,  being  the  first  settlers,  and  their  land  being  located  in  sections 
6  and  7.  In  1835  several  prominent  men  located  in  that  vicinity,  among  the 
best  known  being  Uriah  Lockwood  and  his  son  Henry,  whose  large  landed 
possessions  were  also  in  sections  6  and  7. 

The  others  who  entered  land  in  1835  were  William  T.  Green.  Horatio 
J.  Olcott,  Silas  Hutchinson,  Elisha  Spencer,  Alexander  Marshal!,  Charles  M. 
Marshall,  Isaac  T.  Dudley,  Oliver  Johnson,  Moses  Hawks,  Charles  Fox,  Joel 
L.  Putnam,  Reuben  Wilson,  William  Bockes,  John  Wilson,  Don  A.  Dewe\* 
and  Amos  Hough, 

The  northwest  corner  of  the  township  continued  to  receive  the  large 
share  of  the  immigrants.  In  1836  Samuel  M.  Treat,  a  native  of  Oneida 
county.  New  York,  located  in  section  8  and  with  eighty  acres  of  land  as  a 
nucleus  began  a  successful  career  which  in  time  made  him  one  of  the  large 
land  owners  of  Ovid.  Henry  Treat  also  located  in  this  vicinity,  as  also  Jared 
G.  Brooks  and  Stuart  Davis,  Tlie  south  side  of  section  8  was  the  site  of  a 
sawmill,  built  by  Gardner  Scofield  during  the  early  forties.  Stephen  Bates 
was  another  early  settler  in  this  vicinity. 

A  httle  further  east,  sections  3,  4  and  10  furnished  homes  to  the  well 
known  famihes  of  Baldridge,  Smith  and  Willets.  That  the  bulk  of  the  first 
settlers  were  in  the  northwest  corner  of  the  township  is  further  indicated  by 
the  fact  that  the  first  school  of  the  town  was  established  in  section  6. 

One  of  the  best  known  later  settlers  was  Dr.  Daniel  Wilson,  whose 
home  for  many  years  was  in  section  28,  His  father.  Reuben  Wilson,  was  one 
of  the  earliest  settlers  in  this  portion  of  the  township,  much  of  his  land  being 
in  section  21.  Dr.  Wilson  located  permanently  in  this  township  in  1839,  and 
became  noted  as  a  physician,  farmer,  sheriff  of  the  county  and  in  many  ways 
identified  with  public  interests. 

The  part  of  the  township  lying  east  of  Coldwater  lake  was  also  early 
settled,  the  Ouimby  family  being  perhaps  the  best  known. 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  S7 

One  otiiei'  locality  should  be  mentioned — Parley's  Corners,  which  at  one 
time  had  business  activities  almost  sufficient  to  dignify  it  with  the  name  of 
village.  Parley  Stockwell,  mentioned  in  the  history  of  Coldwater  township, 
settled  in  the  northeast  corner  of  section  i6  about  1842,  and  established  an 
asherv  for  the  mamifacture  of  potash.  A  little  later  a  postoffice  was  estab- 
lished there,  with  Mr.  Stockwell  as  postmaster.  He  usually  kept  the  mail  for 
the  community  in  one  of  his  pockets.  A  schooliiouse  was  also  built  at  this 
point,  a  blacksmith  shop  and  tavern  opened.  But  little  growth  toward  vil- 
lage proportions  was  made,  and  Ovid  has  always  continued  an  agricultural 
community.  In  recent  years  the 'attractions  of  Coldwater  lake  as  a  summer 
resort  and'  the  building  of  numerous  cottages  around  its  shore  have  made  it 
a  center  for  social  life,  but  the  business  center  for  the  people  of  the  township 
is  at  Coldwater. 

Algansee  Township. 

From  the  history  of  earJy  settlement  in  Branch  county  certain  conclu- 
sions might  be  deduced  that  would  obtain  almost  with  the  force  of  Jaws.  One 
is  that  those  portions  of  the  county  which  bore  the  topographical  definition  of 
''oak  ojjenings"'  were  almost  invariably  the  first  spots  to  be  taken  in  settle- 
ment. It  would  also  seem  true  that  where  water  power  has  been  advantage- 
ously situated  it  has  been  made  the  object  of  enterprise  on  the  part  of  one  or 
more  of  the  earliest  settlers.  In  the  case  of  Algansee  township  we  find  very 
|)ei"tinent  illustration  of  these  historical  observations. 

Algansee  was  one  of  the  later  townships.  No  settlements  were  made  until 
after  1835.  The  census  of  1837  did  not  name  it,  and  the  inhabitants  then 
residing  within  its  present  boundaries  were  included  with  those  of  Quincy 
township,  Algansee  was  set  off  from  Quincy  in  April,  1838,  as  already  ex- 
plained, but  even  then  included,  until  March,  1846,  what  is  now  California. 

When  the  first  settlers  came  to  this  township  they  found  its  southwest 
corner  the  only  considerable  area  that  was  not  densely  timbered.  It  is  not 
surprising  to  find,  therefore,  that  the  resident  landowners  in  the  township  in 
1837  were  mostly  grouped  on  sections  28,  29,  30,  31,  32  and  33.  In  the  very 
c(jrner  of  the  town,  with  his  residence  on  the  State  road  through  section  31, 
we  find  in  that  year  the  pioneer  and  prominent  citizen,  Asahel  Brown,  who 
liad  entered  and  purchased  land  here  in  1836  and  lived  here  in  active  useful- 
ness until  his  death  in  1874.  He  was  town  supervisor  twenty-one  years,  a 
oiemlier  of  the  state  constitutional  convention  of  1850  and  later  of  the  state 
senate,  and  easily  the  foremost  citizen  of  his  part  of  the  county. 

Near  him,  on  section  33,  Hved  E.  S.  E.  Erainard,  another  pioneer  name 
that  evokes  many  personal  associations  in  that  part  of  the  county.  He  had 
also  come  to  the  town  in  1836,  making  the  journey  overland  from  Detroit 
with  ox  team.  He  was  prominent  in  the  organization  of  the  township,  and 
his  name  will  frequently  be  found  in  the  list  of  township  officers. 

Owning  land  in  sections  28  and  29  was  Horace  Purdy,  at  whose  house 
\\"as  held  the  first  township  meeting  in  1838,  in  accordance  with  the  act  of 
legislature.     Section  29  was  also  the  home  of  David  Tift,  who  on  coming 


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88  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

to  Branch  county  in  1836  had  first  settled  in  Kinderhook  but  in  the  same  year 
located  in  Algansee,  where  he  lived  until  his  death  in  1859.  His  two  sons 
Roswald  and  Jerome  B.  were  long  residents  of  this  part  of  the  township. 

Other  settlers  in  the  southwest  corner  of  the  township,  according  to  the 
census  of  1837,  were  Jesse  Craft  and  James  Nichols,  on  section  29;  Isaac 
George,  whose  land  was  in  sections  19,  28  and  29;  Thomas  Pratt,  who  had 
located  on  section  33  only  a  few  weeks  after  his  brother-in-law  S.  E.  Brainard; 
and  Nathan  Austin,  on  section  32. 

The  only  other  settlers  in  the  township  in  1837,  so  far  as  the  records 
show,  were  Leonard  Nelson  and  Almon  Nichols,  on  section  25 ;  Ludovico  Rob- 
bins,  who  owned  a  large  tract  of  land  in  sections  15  and  22;  and  Morris  Crater 
and  Luther  Stiles. 

The  last  two  settlers  deserve  some  special  mention.  Luther  Stiles  shares 
with  Ludovico  Robbins  the  honor  of  being  the  first  permanent  settler  of 
Algansee,  both  ari-iving,  though  not  as  companions,  on  the  same  day.  Morris 
Crater  came  from  Livingston  county,  New  York,  to  this  township  in  July, 
1S36,  his  land  entry  being  on  section  13,  while  that  of  Stiles  was  in  section  9, 
bordering  on  Hanchett  creek.  In  the  fall  of  1836  Crater  and  Stiles  began  the 
construction  of  the  first  sawmill  in  the  township  and  completed  it  for 
operation  in  the  following  February.  This  mill  was  located  on  the  creek  in 
the  east  half  of  section  9,  at  the  site  so  long  utilized  for  mill  purposes.  Mr. 
Stiles  left  the  township  in  1837  and  Mr.  Crater  moved  to  Quincy  a  few  years 
later,  but  in  establishing  this  mill  they  did  an  important  pioneer  work. 

This  was  the  status  of  settlement  in  Algansee  in  1837.  From  that  time 
on  population  increased  steadily  and  in  time  even  the  heavily  timbered  portions 
were  cleared  and  occupied  and  beginnings  were  made  in  the  work  of  drainage 
which,  as  explained  elsewhere,  was  of  first  importance  to  the  proper  agri- 
cultural development  of  this  township.  Two  of  the  prominent  settlers  of 
1838  were  Seth  E.  and  Samuel  B.  Hanchett,  both  locating  on  section  9.  An- 
drew Crater  located  on  section  15,  and  the  settlement  in  the  southwest  comer 
was  increased  by  Daniel  Eickford,  w^hose  land  was  in  section  29.  In  this  lo- 
cality and  in  1838  was  taught  the  first  school,  a  summer  term  by  Miss  Jane 
Woodard.  Jasper  Underhill,  the  first  town  clerk,  settled  in  section  31  about 
this  time. 

Others  who  may  have  taken  part  in  the  first  town  meeting  at  the  house 
of  Horace  Purdy,  in  May,  183S,  were  John  Vanderhoof  and  Eli  Gray,  from 
section  6;  Barney  Smith,  on  section  13;  Abram  Ackerson,  on  section  20;  H. 
Hildreth,  section  25 ;  Thomas  Goodman,  section  22 ;  and  Jesse  Doyle,  sec- 
tion 35. 

In  the  vicinity  of  the  Stiles-Crater  original  mill  there  m  time  grew  up  a 
little  center,  consisting  of  the  posfoffice,  school,  several  churches.  It  was  the 
home  of  the  well  remembered  physician  and  public  official,  Dr.  James  A. 
Williams,  who  located  there  in  1854. 

In  the  southern  part  of  the  township,  in  section  27,  a  steam  sawmill  was 
built  by  the  Wakemans  in  1854,  and  in  1878  a  large  grist  mill  was  erected 
at  the  same  place  by  Eli  and  Mortimer  B.  Wakeman. 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  89 

Noble  Township. 

The  fractional  township  of  Nohle  was  not  set  off  from  Bronson  until  the 
legislative  act  of  March,  1845,  o'^'*^^  "'"^  years  after  the  first  settler  had  lo- 
cated within  its  borders.  At  the  first  township  meeting,  which  was  held  at 
the  house  of  John  Grove  in  section  9,  in  April,  1S45,  the  following  settlers 
took  official  part :  Ambrose  Hale  (two  of  the  same  name),  E.  W.  Craig,  Will- 
iam Butts,  William  Rippey,  Sidney  Marble,  I.  Driggs,  Thomas  Siiane,  Cyrus 
Ueardsley,  Jared  Fuller,  Samuel  S.  Bushnell,  William  Shane,  I.  H.  Foust, 
J.  H.  Smith,  William  Milliman,  Sidney  S.  Matthews,  John  Curtis,  James 
Anderson,  David  Foster,  Levi  M.  Curtis,  Andrews  Watling,  Walter  W. 
Smith,  Moses  Strong,  I.  D.  Hart. 

In  this  list  of  active  citizens  can  undoubtedly  be  found  the  majority  of 
the  first  settlers  and  those  most  prominent  in  the  time  of  beginnings  for  Noble 
township.  The  group  of  first  settlers,  who  came  in  1836,  would  comprise 
tlie  names  of  Walter  W.  Smith,  on  the  northwest  quarter  of  section  ro;  Will- 
iam Rippey,  William  Butts  (who  was  a  blacksmith),  and  John  Grove.  In 
the  same  year  what  has  always  been  known  as  the  "Dutch  settlement"  was 
started  in  the  northwest  corner  of  the  township  by  the  settlement  in  section 
6  of  Daniel  Himebaugh,  a  family  name  that  has  been  conspicuous  in  southwest 
Branch  county  from  pioneer  days  to  the  present.  Others  of  the  Pennsylvania 
Dutch  stock  followed,  bringing  with  them  their  habits  of  simplicity  and  thrift- 
iness  and  their  Mennonite  religion.  Tlie  Mennonite  church  on  section  2 
is  the  visible  evidence  of  the  faith  which  has  bound  this  community  together 
in  Noble  townsliip  for  many  years. 

David  Foster  was  one  of  the  settlers  of  1837,  locating  half  a  mile  east 
of  Hickory  Corners.  Hickory  Corners,  while  a  well  known  landmark  In 
Noble  township  and  with  historical  associations  running  back  seventy  years, 
has  never  been  a  business  center  further  than  having  been  the  location  of 
the  postmaster's  home  at  one  time  and  of  the  schoolhouse.  The  name  was 
given  and  clung  to  this  crossroads  because  at  one  time  a  group  of  hickory 
trees  stood  there.  Thomas  Henderson  was  a  settler  there  in  1836;  also  Am- 
brose Hale,  the  first  supervisor  of  the  township.  Joseph  Smith  and  his  son 
C.  R.  Smith  were  early  settlers  in  the  same  locality,  their  land  being  in  sec- 
tion 3.  William  Robinson  settled  on  the  same  section  in  1836.  A  settler 
of  1841  in  the  oak  openings  east  of  the  Corners  was  John  H.  Lane.  John 
Ciutis,  also  mentioned  as  taking  part  in  the  first  town  meeting,  had  located 
in  the  year  preceding  the  meeting  on  section  2. 

James  Anderson,  a  native  of  Scotland,  who  settled  in  the  southeast  corner 
of  Noble  in  1842,  where  the  little  lake  still  bears  his  name,  was  responsible  for 
the  name  that  was  given  to  the  township.  He  was  an  active  citizen  of  Noble 
for  alrout  six  years,  and  then  moved  to  Coldwater  and  went  into  business. 

Samuel  S.  Bushnell  located  on  section  11  in  1838  and  lived  there  until 
liis  death  in  1872.  He  and  his  son  Ephraim  B.  were  both  active  in  township, 
iiffairs.  Section  5  was  the  pioneer  home  of  Peter  Mallow,  one  of  the  best 
known  of  Noble's  early  settlers,  who  located  there  in  1840  and  spent  his  life 


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90  HISTORY  OF  BRANXH  COUNTY 

in  developing  a  home  from  the  wilderness  which  he  found.  His  sons  Will- 
iam and  George  W.  are  still  living  in  Noble  and  active  in  business  and  citizen- 
ship. 

Until  rural  free  delivery  brought  postal  facilities  to  every  home,  Noble 
township  had  a  postofTice,  located  at  different  times  with  different  residents  in 
the  eastern  part  of  the  town.  Further  than  this,  there  has  been  nothing  in 
the  way  of  a  center  in  the  township,  which  from  the  first  has  been  chiefly  noted 
for  its  agricultural  possibilities  and  its  thrifty  farming  class. 

California  Township. 

California  township,  which  was  not  separately  organized  until  March, 
1846.  began  to  be  settled,  nevertheless,  about  the  same  time  as  Algansee,  Ovid 
and  Kinderhook,  the  adjoining  towns.  Although  there  is  little  distinctive  in 
the  history  of  this  town's  settlement,  some  very  interesting  personalities  and 
worthy  characters  are  found  among  the  pioneers. 

The  late  James  H.  Lawrence,  whose  death  occurred  in  1897,  wrote  and 
published  a  number  of  reminiscences  concerning  his  first  experiences  in  Cali- 
fornia township,  where  he  was  one  of  the  first  settlers.  In  the  latter  part  of 
1S35,  in  company  with  Samuel  Beach  and  son  William  Beach,  he  traveled  the 
Chicago  road  as  far  as  Coldwater,  and  from  there  came  by  trail  as  liest  they 
could  as  far  as  Waterhouse  Corners  in  Kinderhook  township,  where  they 
met  the  Kinderhook  pioneers  already  known  to  the  reader — Tripp,  Water- 
house  and  Lampson. 

Evidently  the  Beach -Lawrence  party  bad  determined  beforehand  on  a  lo- 
cation in  the  fractional  township  that  later  became  California,  for  they  con- 
tinued on  to  their  "destination,"  on  section  4.  where  they  commenced  to  build 
a  house  "by  felling  the  first  tree  cut  by  a  white  man  in  Cahfomia  township." 
Whilg  engaged  in  this  labor  two  other  home.'ieekers  already  known  to  ns, 
Asahel  Brown  and  Nathan  Austin,  paid  them  a  brief  visit,  but  did  not  re- 
main in  California,  locating  instead  in  the  southwest  corner  of  Algansee  as 
told  on  a  former  page.  The  log  house  was  soon  constructed  and  properly 
chinked  with  mud  and  roofed  over,  and  then,  early  in  1836,  Mr.  Beach  came 
with  his  familv  and  made  his  settlement  permanent. 

According  to  the  description  given  by  Mr.  Lawrence,  the  isolation  of 
this  family  for  a  time  was  almost  complete,  and  of  course  the  same  was  true 
of  many  other  pioneer  households  in  Branch  county.  Only  rough  and  devious 
Indian  trails  led  from  one  part  of  the  country  to  another,  and  not  even  these 
could  be  relied  upon  since  the  white  settlements  were  often  situated  without 
regard  to  these  primitive  avenues  of  communication. 

To  quote  a  paragraph  from  Mr.  Lawrence's  narrative:  "Ira  Purdy  was 
the  next  settler,  and  the  first  one  to  build  after  us.  He  came  early  in  the 
spring  of  1836.  and  built  a  small  log  house  on  section  3,  He  too  had  to  go 
into  the  hotel  business,  and  declares  that  some  nights  he  kept  as  many  as  forty 
people.  The  same  spring  we  went  to  Ouincy,  ten  miles  north  of  us,  to  attend 
town  meeting,  when  Mr.  Beach  was  elected  a  justice  of  the  peace.     Our  route 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  91 

la}-  through  an  unbroken  wilderness,  and  our  only  guide  was  section  lines, 
w  iiicli  were  followed  through  swamps  and  marsh,  brush  and  brakes." 

Many  settlers  came  during  1836,  and  it  is  noteworthy  that  most  of  them 
settled  in  the  northern  part  of  the  township-  and  about  the  site  of  the  present 
California  village.  Ira  Cass,  George  Monlux  and  Alexander  Odren,  arrivals' 
of  that  year,  were  founders  of  families  that  have  been  well  and  favorably 
known  since.  Alexander  Odren,  who  died  in  this  township  in  1888,  aged 
ninety-seven  years,  perhaps  the  oldest  native  of  Michigan  at  the  time,  located 
on  section  i  and  spent  over  fifty  years  there.  Ira  Cass  was  a  well  known  pio- 
neer character,  about  whom  many  anecdotes  were  told,  and  he  had  a  large 
family  of  four  sons  and  six  daughters.  Israel  R.  Hall  was  another  settler  of 
this  year. 

According  to  the  census  returns  of  1837  the  resident  land  owners  in  Cal- 
ifornia were  located  as  follows :  Samuel  Beach  lived  on  section  4.  Israel  R. 
Hall  had  land  in  the  same  section  and  also  in  sections  3  and  9.  Another 
neighbor  was  Ira  Purdy,  in  section  3.  The  Lawrences,  comprising  J.  W.,  J. 
\V.,  Jr.,  and  James  H.,  lived  on  section  5,  but  James  H.  soon  became  a  resi- 
dent on  section  10.  George  Monlux  was  on  section  4,  Ira  Cass  had  his  land 
in  sections  2  and  3,  while  in  the  northeast  corner  of  the  town  were  Alexander 
Odren,  on  section  i,  John  W.  Harris,  section  i,  and  Theodore  G.  Holden, 
whose  extensive  landed  possessions  were  on  sections  i,  3  and  12.  The  other 
settlers  were  Azam  Purdy,  a  brother  of  Ira,  on  section  23;  William  ThomiJ- 
son.  section  12;  Stiliman  Ehvell,  section  10;  and  Jacob  B.  Brown  and  Jonathan 
Hall,  on  section  6. 

The  two  north  tiers  of  sections  also  received  most  of  the  settlers  of  1838. 
Some  of  the  settlers  of  that  year  were:  On  section  i,  Fowler  Quimby  and 
Kidgeway  Craft;  section  12,  Justus  Leuse;  section  11,  Joseph  F.  Reynolds 
and  John  Vincent;  section  8,  Gilbert  Gordinier;  section  6,  Asel  Whitney  and 
Isaac  Withey;  on  sections  15  and  21,  James  Craig;  section  16,  Rev.  George 
Bryant. 

'iliese  were  the  -pioneers.  By  the  time  California  township  was  organ- 
ized the  process  of  settlement  was  fairly  complete,  for  not  a  section  was  with- 
out at  least  one  landowner,  and  at  the  first  town  meeting  sixty  male  voters 
took  part  in  the  proceedings.  Some  of  the  pioneers  aixive  mentioned  were 
chosen  to  office,  as  will  be  seen  in  the  list  from  supervisor  down — George 
MonJitx,  William  Beach,  Ira  Purdy,  Samuel  Beach,  George  D.  Avery,  James 
M,  Hall,  Robert  Merrill,  James  Craig.  Talcott  Merwin,  Isaac  n'  Miner, 
Thomas  H.  Reynolds,  Chauncey  Miles,  Cephas  B.  Dresser,  Alexander  Odren, 
Jr.,  Andrew  J.  Critchfield,  John  C.  Reynolds,  Isaac  Purdy,  Hart  Hazen, 
Screno  Gillelt,  Ebenezer  Adams,  James  Hall. 

We  have  noticed  that  the  first  settlers  formed  a  group  on  sections  3,  4, 
9  and  10.  At  the  crossroads  corners  of  these  sections,  about  1846,  Joseph  Hall 
opened  a  stock  of  goods  and  became  the  first  merchant.  From  this  circum- 
s^tance  this  locality  was  long  known  by  the  name  of  "Hall's  Corners."  but  the 
present  generation  has  been  more  familiar  with  the  designation  of  "California" 
village  or  postoffice.     This  place  has  gone  through  the  usual  stages  of  growth. 


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92  HISTO'RY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

A  biacksniith  shop  was  built  near  the  store,  ].  W.  Lawrence  of  pioneer  fame 
being  the  blacksmith,  a  carpenter  furnished  another  kind  of  mechanical  skill. 
The  first  schoolhouse  in  the  town  had  been  located,  about  1838,  on  Ira  Purdy's 
farm,  not  far  from  the  Corners,  and  in  time  it  was  moved  to  the  northeast 
corner  of  section  9,  making  another  institution  that  promotes  community  life. 
A  postoffice  was  established  there,  the  Presbyterian  church  had  been  located 
there  since  1S40.  Edward  and  Thomas  Morrow  erected  a  steam  sawmill  in 
1867.  With  these  institutions  and  industries  California  has  long  maintained 
its  quiet  position  as  an  inland  village,  having  a  population  of  162  at  the  last 
census.  Cephas  B.  Dresser  was  the  first  lawyer  with  a  home  at  that  point, 
and  since  then  several  professional  men  have  been  located  there.  Unfor- 
tunately, when  the  Fort  Wayne  and  Jackson  branch  railroad  was  constructed 
about  1870  CaHfornia  was  left  to  one  side,  and  the  hamlet  is  three  miles  from 
the  State  Line  station.  With  a  railroad  California  would  doubtless  have  ex- 
perienced similar  growth  to  that  of  Sherwood  in  the  opposite  comer  of  the 
county. 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 


CHAPTER  XHI. 
THE  CITY  OF  COLDWATER. 

Tlie  origin  of  Coldvvater  has  been  sketched  on  other  pages;  as  the  of- 
licial  center  of  the  county  and  the  principal  business  place  and  the  only  city, 
it  lias  necessarily  occupied  a  large  share  of  attention  in  the  narrative.  It 
seems  fitting,  however,  in  the  following  paragraphs  to  set  down  in  consecu- 
ti\e  order  such  facts  as  will  show  the  progress  of  the  city  from  the  village 
Hlnte  to  the  prosperous  city  which  with  proper  pride  can  celebrate  its  existence 
oi  three  quarters  of  a  century. 

From  the  incorporation  of  Coldwater  village  in  1837  to  the  incorporation 
of  Coldwater  city  in  1861,  there  are  few  matters  to  chronicle  more  than  the 
steady  growth  which  made  a  city  government  appropriate  and  necessary.  As 
eli^ewhere  mentioned,  the  transfer  of  the  county  seat  from  Branch  to  the  pub- 
lic square  where  it  is  now  located  was  the  event  of  pregnant  importance  for 
the  early  development  of  Coldwater.  The  building  of  the  mills  along  Cold- 
water  river  inaugurated  the  manufacturing  which  in  1905  was  represented  by 
34  firms. 

In  speaking  of  the  growth  of  Coldwater  one  fact  deserves  prominence. 
Tiie  city  has  maintained  an  even  balance,  a  fair  proportion  between  the  various 
institutions,  industries  and  professional  and  commercial  activities.  Coldwater 
is  not  a  "factory  town,"  and  yet  its  annual  aggregate  of  manufactured  prod- 
ucts is  large.  It  is  not  pre-eminently  a  trade  center,  in  the  sense  that  the 
daily  retail  transactions  on  Chicago  street  are  the  index  of  the  city's  prosperity. 
Nor  is  it  the  home  of  retired  wealth  and  latent  capital,  notwithstanding  a 
million  dollars  of  surplus  and  deposits  in  its  three  Iranks.  Coldwater  could 
not  be  called  a  "county  seat  town,"  meaning  that  the  court  house  was  the  hub 
of  its  enterprise.  In  fact,  Coldwater  is  all  of  these  things,  and  yet  in  sucli 
proportion  that  its  welfare  does  not  depend  on  any  one  class  of  enterprise. 
Coldwater  has  never  been  "boomed,"  but  has  grown  steadily  and  conservatively 
since  Allen  Tibbits  and  Joseph  Hanchett  platted  the  first  site  seventy-five  years 
ago.  Very  few  towns  survive  a  genuine  "boom,"  just  as  very  few  speculators 
e\er  leave  the  stock  market  with  a  fortune — and  for  the  same  reason.  The 
business  men  of  Coldwater  would  not  welcome  a  flush  of  enterprise  whose 
after  effects  might  prove  disastrous  to  the  stability  of  the  city.  For  fifteen 
years  Coldwater  and  Branch  cbunty  have  been  doing  business  on  the  credit 
side  of  the  ledger,  have  ceased  to  be  borrowers  and  become  lenders,  and  this 
is  the  kind  of  prosperity  that  is  worth  maintaining. 

The  courthouse  was  built  in  Coldwater  in  1848.  About  the  same  time 
came  the  telegraph,  and  in  1850  the  Lake  Shore  Railroad     These  were  the 


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94  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

events  of  most  importance  during  the  history  of  the  village.  The  stage  coach 
ceased  as  an  institution,  and  the  expectant  postmaster  ceased  to  listen  for  the 
blast  which  announced  the  coming  of  the  mail  coach,  and  instead  Hstened  for 
the  whistle  of  the  locomotive  on  the  south  side  of  the  village.  Aflother  evi- 
dence of  growth  was  the  organization  of  the  first  regular  fire  protection  serv- 
ice, in  August,  1856,  when  Excelsior  Company  No.  i  came  into  existence  with 
its  manual  engine  and  hose  cart. 

These  improvements  led  the  way  for  the  formation  of  a  city  government 
in  1861,  by  special  charter  from  the  legislature.  The  first  mayor  was  the  late 
Albert  Chandler,  and  his  fellow  ofticials  comprised  such  well  known  names  as 
Robert  F.  Mockridge,  John  S.  Youngs,  Franklin  D.  Marsh,  F.  V.  Smith,  J.  S. 
Barber,  Isaac  P.  Alger,  E.  W.  Bovee,  L.  D.  Crippen,  David  N.  Green,  E.  A. 
Knowlton,  The  principal  city  and  village  officers  from  1837  to  the  present 
will  be  found  in  the  official  lists. 

The  municipal  improvements  and  institutions  of  Coldwater  have  come 
into  existence  in  keeping  with  its  material  wealth  and  the  general  spirit  of 
progress.  By  looking  back  it  is  possible  to  date  the  beginning  of  many  im- 
provements that  now  seem  to  be  the  very  basis  of  comfort  and  security.  We 
recall  the  frequent  admonitions  of  the  editor  of  the  Sentinel  during  the  forties 
that  the  citizens  should  give  attention  to  the  streets  and  sidewalks,  which 
were  in  an  execrable  condition,  calling  particular  attention  to  the  many  mud 
holes  and  lack  of  sidewalks  on  the  business  .section  of  Chicago  street.  It  is 
the  faculty  and  privilege  of  "practical  optimism"  while  realizing  the  much 
that  remains  to  be  accomplished  that  it  yet  delights  in  the  present  conditions 
which  form  so  happy  a  contrast  with  the  past.  Since  the  decade  of  the  forties, 
and  in  every  subsequent  decade,  a  constant  change  for  the  better  has  been 
going  on  to  affect  the  beauty  and  convenience  of  Coldwater's  thoroughfares. 
Some  day  the  grateful  citizens  may  erect  a  monument  in  honor  of  those  whose 
foresight  and  care  proyided  for  the  planting  of  the  thousands  of  shade  trees 
along  the  principal  streets.  The  usefulness  of  the  cement  which  is  now  manu- 
factured in  such  large  quantities  in  the  county  finds  no  better  evidence  than  in 
the  miles  of  sidewalk  which  have  taken  the  place  of  the  old-time  board  or 
grave!  walk  and  to  a  large  extent  the  brick  walks. 

The  business  section,  which  was  the  special  object  of  attack  on  the  part 
of  the  Sentinel  editor,  now  would  certainly  satisfy  his  ideals.  About  1900 
Chicago  street  from  the  public  square  to  Jackson  street  was  substantially  paved 
with  brick,  and  one  or  two  of  the  intersecting  streets,  notably  Monroe,  were 
paved  for  a  short  distance  on  either  side.  This  paving  has  done  as  much  as 
anything  else  toward  rendering  the  business  section  cleanly,  convenient  and 
giving  it  a  metropolitan  appearance. 

This  anticipates  the  consecutive  order  of  municipal  progress.  The  most 
valuable  of  all  municipal  works  is  water  works.  The  proposition  to  build  a 
system  of  water  works  in  Coldwater  was  submitted  to  the  citizens  on  April 
8,  1890,  and  carried  by  a  majority  of  345  out  of  1,199.  votes  cast.  The  first 
cost  of  the  plant  was  seventy  thousand  dollars,  but  improvements  and  exten- 
sions since  that  date  have  cost  half  as  much  more.     Mimicipal  ownership  of 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  1>5 

these  and  similar  public  utilities  is  fixed  by  principle  and  long  custom  in  Cold- 
water,  and  so  we  find  the  water  works  and  the  electric  lighting  plant  run  in 
conjunction.     The  city  electric  lighting  plant  was  installed  in  1891. 

From  the  time  of  their  establishment  until  1903  these  plants  were  under 
the  control  of  an  electric  light  and  water  works  committee,  but  in  the  latter 
\ear  the  legislature  created  a  boai'd  of  public  works  with  supervision  and 
control  over  these  utilities.  The  meuibers  of  this  board  are  appointed  by  the 
mayor  with  the  consent  of  the  council,  and  are  chosen  outside  of  the  council, 
and  after  the  first  year  one  new  member  has  been  chosen  each  year  for  a  term 
of  five  years.  The  first  board  of  public  works,  with  varying  lengths  of  term, 
were  A.  A.  Dorrance,  J.  M.  Crocker,  E.  D.  Luedders,  A.  A.  Sherman,  B.  H. 
Calkins. 

Water  works  is  a  very  essential  factor  in  fire  protection,  but  as  already 
stated,  Coldwaler  had  provisions  in  this  line  years  before  the  water  works  were 
established.  In  1866  the  different  companies  were  organized  as  "The  Fire 
Association  of  Coldwater,"  and  in  1872  this  dejiartment  of  jmblic  service  be- 
came "  The  City  of  Coldwater  Steam  Fire  Engine  Company,"  that  being  the 
date  of  the  purchase  of  the  first  steam  fire  engine.  The  department  was  or- 
ganized on  its  present  basis  in  the  nineties,  consisting  of  a  chief  and  a  num- 
jjer  of  firemen,  all  of  whom  are  paid  a  salary,  but  only  two  are  constantly  on 
duty  at  the  fire  station.  James  B.  Smullen  is  at  present  chief  of  the  depart- 
ment. The  apparatus,  consisting  chiefly  of  engine,  hose  cart  and  hook  and 
ladder  truck,  is  housed  in  the  lower  story  of  the  city  hail,  on  South  Monroe 
street,  the  second  story  of  this  building  being  used  as  council  chamber  and  of- 
fices for  the  city  officials: 

Churches  and  schools  are  described  on  other  pages,  also  the  public  li- 
brary, which  was  instituted  in  1880,  and  the  E.  R.  Qarke  Library  building, 
erected  in  1886.  A  building,  which,  though  buiit  by  private  enterprise,  is  in 
every  sense  a  public  institution,  is  the  Tibbets  Opera  House.  It  was  erected 
by  B.  S.  Tibbits,  and  was  opened  for  the  first  performance. on  September  21, 
1882,  the  "  Maid  of  Arran  "  being  given  on  that  night.  This  beautiful  little 
playhouse  on  South  Hanchett  street  has  been  a  familiar  center  for  meetings 
and  entertainments  of  many  kinds  through  nearly  a  generation. 

It  remains  to  record  briefly  some  of  the  more  important  and  long  estab- 
lished business  concerns  of  Coldwater.  The  professions  and  the  manufactur- 
ing interests  are  elsewhere  described.  No  doubt  the  oldest  mercantile  con- 
cern of  Coldwater  is  E.  R.  Clarke  &  Co.,  which  was  established  in  1850 
by  the  late  Edwin  R.  Clarke  as  a  drug  store.  The  store  has  always  been  con- 
ducted by  the  Clarke  family,  and  has  grown  to  be  one  of  the  best  known  es- 
lablishments  in  Branch  county,  its  location  always  having  been  on  the  north- 
east corner  of  Monroe  and  Chicago  streets. 

One  who  was  familiar  with  the  mercantile  section  of  Coldwater  thirty 
years  ago  but  who  had  in  the  meantime  been  away,  would  find  on  returning 
at  this  time  several  of  the  familiar  merchants  and  stores  that  he  had  once 
known.     Among  these  would  be  the  Sloman  clothing  house.  The  drug  house 


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96  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

formerly  conducted  by  A.  A.  Dorrance  would  now  be  found  in  the  hands  of 
his  son,  A.  J.  E>orrance.  The  Flandermeyer  boot  and  shoe  house  was  in  bus- 
iness thirty-five  years  ago  as  well  as  to-day.  The  Woodward,  Barber  &  Co. 
of  that  time,  general  dealers,  has  since  become  the  Woodward  &  Son  dry 
goods  and  furnishing  store.  Another  outgrowth  of  this  old  firm  is  the 
present  department  store  of  J.  B.  Branch  &  Company,  which  was  organized 
in  1877.  In  1877  also  was  established  the  Conover  Engraving  and  Printing 
Company,  by  the  late  J.  S.  Conover.  Charles  A.  Conover  now  conducts  the 
business,  which  covers  an  individual  field  in  Coldwater  and  is  one  of  the  larg- 
est concerns  of  its  kind  in  Southern  Michigan. 

T.  A.  Hilton,  the  clothier,  is  another  business  man  who  has  been  suc- 
cessfully engaged  in  merchandising  on  Chicago  street  for  thirty  years  or 
more.  Mr.  A.  B.  Walker,  proprietor  of  the  Coldwater  steam  laundry,  has 
been  in  that  line  of  business  since  1888.  The  real  estate  firm  of  R,  C.  Saw- 
dey  &  Son,  which  was  founded  by  the  late  R.  C.  Sawdey  over  thirty-five 
years  ago  and  is  now  conducted  by  W.  S.  Sawdey,  has  a  long  and  enviable 
record  in  its  line  of  business. 

L.  M.  Bassett  &  Son  are  jewelers  at  48  West  Chicago  St.  in  the 
same  building   in   which   Mr,    Bassett,   the   father,   began  business  in   1851. 

The  business  of  the  Milnes  Supply  Company,  54-56  W.  Chicago  St., 
was  begun  by  Mr.  Henry  Milnes,  the  grandfather  of  Mr.  Harry  L.  Milnes 
of  the  present  firm,  in   1863. 

The  hardware  business  of  the  Chandler  family  dates  back  to  1S41, 
when  Hon.  Albert  Chandler  began  his  long  and  active  life  as  a  resident 
of  Coldwater.  The  family  has  been  represented  in  this  business  ever  since, 
the  name  being  continued  now  in  the  firm  of  Chandler  &  Lee,  38  W. 
Chicago  St.  V.  L.  Nettleton  &  Co.,  at  49  W.  Chicago  St.,  continue  the 
hardware  business  begun  by  the  father  of  Mr.  Vernon  L.  in  1866.  Previous 
to  1889  there  had  been  only  three  hardware  stores  in  Coldwater.  In  that 
year  Kerr  Bros,  opened  the  fourth  in  the  city's  history,  goiilg  into  the  fine 
building  which  they  erected  and  now  occupy  in  1891.  On  Dec.  30,  1889, 
David  C.  Allen  began  to  carry  on  the  hardware  business  which  had  been 
previously  owned  by  John  T.  Starr.  He  continues  the  business  at  9  W. 
Chicago  St.,  under  the  firm  name  of  D.  C.  Allen  &  Co. 

The  planing  mill  of  Ball  Bros,  has  for  years  shaped  the  lumber  for 
the  woodwork  of  many  a  building  in  the  county.  Their  business  was 
begun  in  1866  with  the  firm  of  Ball  &  Mauger.  Lewis  Hedgerton  has  a 
record  of  thirty-four  years'  continuous  work  in  the  city  as  blacksmith  and 
horseshoer,  He  began  in  the  stone  shop  on  W,  Chicago  St.  in  1872,  but 
soon  came  to  Hancbett  St.,  where  he  now  is  with  Mr.  John  M.  Chadsey 
as  his  partner.  Rumbing  is  no  unimportant  item  in  the  life  of  a  modem 
civilized  community.  The  firm  of  Mansel]  &  Kappler,  plumbers,  con- 
tinue at  23  South  Monroe  St.  the  business  begvm  by  Mr.  George  Mansell 
in  1865.  when  he  bought  out  the  business  of  Mr.  Wilder.  Mr.  Mansell 
has   been   continuously    in   the   plumbing   business    in    Coldwater   for   over 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  97 

forty  years.  The  first  real  modern  plumbing  in  any  house  in  the  county  was 
that  in  the  residence  of  Mr.  Henry  C,  Lewis  on  E.  Chicago  St.,  which  was 
pi.it  in  by  Mr.  Mansell  in  1S64.  The  son,  Mr.  Edwin  Mansell,  now  has  his 
father's  place  in  the  firm. 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

BRANCH  COUNTY'S  VILLAGES. 

Union  City. 

A  brief  .summary  of  the  conspicuous  features  of  Union  City's  history 
from  the  time  of  settlement,  which  has  already  been  sketched,  will  be  given 
in  this  chapter,  as  also  similar  sketches  of  the  other  villages  of  the  county. 
Union  City  had  splendid  natural  advantages,  especially  in  the  way  of  water 
power  for  manufacturing  purposes,  and  we  already  know  that  the  site  was 
selected  for  this  reason.  That  these  resources  were  not  developed  and  that 
Union  City  did  not  become  a  place  of  first  imixjrtance  was  due  evidently 
to  the  fact  that  during  the  greater  part  of  the  last  century  the  village  had 
no  transportation  facilities.  It  was  the  building  of  the  Air  Line  Rail- 
road in  1870  that  gave  the  village  its  greatest  impulse,  and  since  then  it 
has  in  large  nieasiu'e  overcome  the  handicap  which  its  sister  villages  of 
Quinry  and  Bronson  did  not  have. 

riuring  the  thirties  and  forties  the  people  of  the  middle  west  were 
about  efjiialiy  agitated  and  divided  in  opinion  as  to  advisabiHty  between 
ship  canals  and  railroads.  Union  City  declared  in  favor  of  canals.  That 
was  not  unnatural,  because  in  the  St.  Joseph  river  the  citizens  thought  they 
had  a  natural  water  way  that  needed  only  a  httle  dredging  and  straighten- 
ing to  become  navigable  from  I-ake  Michigan  to  Union  City,  whence  an 
overland  canal  would  connect  with  the  Lake  Erie  watershed.  Both  the 
Michigan  Central  and  Michigan  Southern  railroads  were  in  process  of  con- 
struction at  this  time,  hut,  absorbed  in  the  canal  project.  Union  City  let 
both  pass  her  to  the  side.  The  hopes  of  a  canal  soon  after  died  and'  the 
disappointed  villagers  had  to  wait  twenty  years  before  opportunity  again 
appeared.  This  time  it  was  the  railroad,  the  short  line  that  was  being  con- 
structed largely  by  private  enterprise  and  popular  subscription  from  Jack- 
son to  Niles.  Union  City  became  a  station  on  this  road,  and  when  trains 
began  running  over  the  line  in  1870  the  problem  of  transportation  was 
solved  and  the  industrial  and  business  development  so  long  delayed  could 
now  proceed  without  interruption. 

Union  City  during  her  early  days  made  no  mean  efforts  to  become  a 
manufacturing  center.  The  "  Union  City  Iron  Company,"  which  was  in- 
corporated in  March,  1847,  was  the  most  pretentious  of  these  pioneer  en- 
terprises. Bog  iron  ore  exists  in  many  places  in  southern  Michigan,  Butler 
and  Union  townships  having  large  deposits  in  their  lake  beds,  and  the 
company  was  formed  to  manufacture  this  ore  into  pig-iron.     A  blast  fur- 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  99 

nace  was  built  at  Union  City,  and  the  smelting  of  the  ore  continued  for 
some  years.  Finally  the  plant  was  converted  into  a  foundry  for  the  manu- 
facture of  ijlows  and  other  iron  work. 

Before  the  coming  of  the  railroad,  Union  City  was  incorporated  as  a 
village.  The  petition  for  incorporation  was  put  before  the  board  of  super- 
visors in  1865,  when  there  were  545  inhabitants  within  the  area  proposed  to 
be  incorporated.  In  response  to  the  petition  the  board  incorporated  the 
"  Village  of  Union  City,"  and  at  the  first  election,  held  January  25,  1866, 
the  following  were  the  citizens  chosen  to  direct  village  affairs :  President, 
Isaac  Jones;  Trustees,  H.  F.  Ewers,  J.  D.  Hawthorn,  J.  W.  Smith,  Caleb 
Lincoln,  Ansel  Knowles,  Richard  Avery ;  Clerk,  G.  W.  Buell ;  Treasurer, 
C,  A.  Seymour;  Assessors,  E.  Barber,  Hiram  Crissy;  Street  Commissioners, 
C.  E,  Ewers,  S.  B.  Simms,  J.  S.  Rowell.  Mr.  Jones  did  not  qualify  and 
the  vacancy  was  filled  by  the  appointment  of  Dr.  H.  F.  Ewers  as  president. 
At  the  regular  election  held  March  6,  1866,  the  following  officers  were  chosen 
for  the  ensuing  year:  President,  S.  H.  Nye;  Trustees,  A.  P.  West.  J.  C. 
Leonard,  H.  F.  Ewers,  Solomon  Parsons,  A.  B.  Aiken,  C.  A.  Whiting; 
Clerk,  C.  W.  Saunders ;  Treasurer,  J.  T.  Leonard ;  Marshal,  M,  Morrill ; 
Assessors,  Edwin  Barber,  Hiram  Crissy;  Street  Commissioners,  Sindal  Mor- 
rill, Asa  Hawley,  J.  S.  Rowell.  Tlie  village  was  granted  a  new  charter 
by  the  state  legislature  March  23,  1869,  under  which  aff'airs  were  con- 
ducted until  the  passage  by  the  state  legislature  in  1895  of  the  blanket 
charter  now  governing  all  villages  in  the  State  of  Michigan. 

Union  City  was  a  station  on  the  "  underground  railroad '"  in  the  years 
of  anti-slavery  agitation.  The  village  was  a  hotbed  of  freedom.  Many  of 
the  citizens  had  pronounced  views  on  the  vital  questions  then  disturbing  the 
country.  But  the  foremost  actor  in  the  cause  of  anti-slavery  when  it  came 
to  practical  helpfulness  was  the  late  John  D.  Zimmerman,  blacksmith  by 
trade,  a  pioneer  settler  of  1838,  and  one  of  the  strongest  and  most  pictur- 
esque tigures  in  the  early  history  of  the  village.  He  was  the  "  station 
master  "  for  the  "  slave  railroad,"  and  many  a  time  he  would  get  up  from 
his  bed  at  midnight  to  carry  a  slave  to  the  next  station  at  Marshall.  He 
was  a  man  of  deep  religious  and  moral  convictions,  and  never  once  did 
he  murmur  at  the  hardships  and  actual  dangers  that  this  work  put  upon  him. 

In  public  improvements  Union  City  is  abreast  of  the  times.  Naturally, 
one  of  the  first  movements  would  be  for  efficient  fire  protection,  which 
resulted  in  the  fire  department.  The  bucket  brigade  system  was  superseded 
when  the  village  council  voted  an  appropriation  of  fifteen  hundred  dollars 
to  buy  a  hand  engine  and  complementary  equipment.  This  apparatus  was 
installed  in  July,  1872,  and  on  February  4,  1873,  the  fire  company  was 
organized,  consisting  of  43  members,  A  new  fire  company,  of  33  members, 
was  formed  in  January,  1875,  and  called  the  "  St.  Joseph  Fire  Company  of 
Union  City."  In  1876  a  lot  was  purchased  on  High  street  east  of  Broadway 
and  the  two-story  brick  engine  house  was  built  at  a  cost  of  $2,150.  This 
building  is  still  the  fire  department  and  municipal  headquarters,  the  council 
rooms  being  located  on  the  second  floor.     A  steam  fire  engine  was  purchased 


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100  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

in  1886.  btit  lias  been  little  used  since  the  water  works  were  built.  Tlie 
.  Union  City  Fire  Department  now  has  twelve  volunteer  members,  of  which 
the  chief  is  W.  H.  Rowe,  and  their  prompt  and  efficient  service  is  all  that 
is  needed  to  supplement  the  excellent  mechanical  equipment. 

In  1894  the  citizens  of  Union  City  voted  to  build  and  operate  a  water 
works  plant  and  also  purchase  the  electric-light  plant  which  had  been  there- 
tofore operated  as  a  private  enterprise  by  Rheubottora  and  Bond.  The 
proposition  provided  for  the  issue  of  $25,000  of  municipal  bonds,  $20,000 
to  build  the  water  works  and  $5,000  for  the  electric-light  plant.  In  the 
spring  of  1895  both  plants  were  in  operation  by  the  city.  The  original  cost 
of  the  water  works  was  $21,450,  and  extensions  have  been  made  to  new 
portions  of  the  village  at  various  times  since  then.  The  water  supply  is 
obtained  from  deep  wells.  The  pumping  station  is  in  the  same  building 
with  the  electric  power  house,  and  the  two  plants  are  run  in  conjunction. 
The  electric  light  plant  was  entirely  remodeled  in  1900,  a  new  equipment 
of  the  best  and  latest  electrical  macliinery  being  installed.  For  this  im- 
provement additional  bonds  to  the  amount  of  $8,000  were  voted. 

In  describing  Union  City  in  1903,  Mr.  T.  F.  Robinson  of  the  Register- 
Weekiy  had  this  to  say  of  some  other  features  of  the  village,  and  the  de- 
scription is  as  true  to-day  as  three  years  ago: 

"  The  wide  streets  of  the  city  are  remarkably  well  looked  after  and 
there  are  miles  of  handsome  and  durable  cement  sidewalks  and  cross-walks. 
Two  public  parks  are  well  cared  for  and  they  prove  most  convenient  for 
public  assemblages  in  the  summer  time.  In  Monument  Park  stands  a  fine 
soldiers'  monument,  flanked  on  either  side  by  cannon  which  were  contrib- 
uted by  the  United  States  government.  Thousands  of  beautiful  shade  trees 
line  every  residence  street,  and  citizens  generally  take  great  pride  in  the 
appearance  of  their  lawns  and  grounds.  The  Union  City  Opera  House 
has  been  just  recently  remodeled  by  its  new  owner,  Mr.  N.  E.  Tower.  The 
Union  City  postoffice  now  occupies  a  new  brick  block  on  Hammond  street, 
and  the  interior  was  fitted  up  expressly  for  the  purpose.  The  outfit  is 
unexcelled   in   this  section,   and  patrons   feel   correspondingly  proud   of   it." 

For  a  list  of  the  important  village  officers,  for  a  description  of  the 
schools,  the  manufacturing  and  banking  interests,  the  churches  and  societies, 
the  reader  is  referred  to  other  chapters  of  this  volume.  This  sketch  of 
Union  City  may  properly  be  concluded  with  brief  notice  of  some  of  the 
men  who  have  for  3  number  of  years  been  connected  with  the  mercantile 
life  of  the  village. 

One  of  the  first  to  be  named  would  be  F.  C.  Rheubottom,  who  entered 
upon  his  career  as  manufacturer  and  merchant  at  Union  City  in  1868. 
H.  H.  Chase,  the  jeweler,  made  the  beginning  of  a  large  business  in  1S67 
and  his  is  one  of  the  few  names  of  the  present  that  were  listed  in  the 
old  Branch  County  directory  of  1870.  One  of  the  long-time  merchants  now 
deceased  was  Horace  A.  Corbin,  who  became  the  partner  of  Hiram  Crissv 
in  a  general  store  as  long  ago  as  1856,  and  was  for  about  thirty  years  jn 
business.     He  died  in  1896.     The  associate  of  Mr.  Corbin  in  the  dry-goods 


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,  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  101 

business  during  the  later  years  was  John  B.  Tucker,  who  died  in  1895  after 
half  a  centtiry  of  business  activity  in  Union  Citv- 

In  the  death  of  George  W.'Buell  in  1905' Union  City  lost  a  pioneer 
business  man,  who  was  in  mercantile  business  here  during  the  sixties  and 
was  a  principal  in  the  old  Exchange  Bank  and  in  the  organization  of  the 
Union  City  National  Bank,  and  in  many  ways  was  identified  with  the  in- 
terests of  his  village. 

Other  business  men  of  Union  City  are  Martin  R  Buell,  now  retired,  but 
for  twenty-eight  years,  from  January,  1871,  station  agent  at  this  point. 
Mortimer  Vosburgh  has  also  been  in  various  positions  here  since  1871,  Fred 
C.  Wilkins  began  the  drug  and  book  business  here  in  1878.  James  R. 
Corwin,  who  established  a  marble  and  granite  business  in  188 1 ;  Samuel 
Corbin,  who  began  business  as  wool  and  grain  buyer  here  before  the  com- 
pletion of  the  railroad :  Henry  Seymour,  who  began  the  grocery  business  in 
1877  and  afterward  ijecame  prominent  in  other  lines  as  well  as  public 
official;  M.  P.  Maxon,  whose  career  as  merchant  began  in  1880;  Chauncev 
W.  Saunders,  now  deceased,  who  began  a  retail  shoe  business  in  1858  and 
who  for  years  was  influential  in  business  and  civil  life,  are  names  verv 
closely  associated  with  the  business  life  of  Union  City, 

QulNCr. 

In  time  the  settiement  at  the  central  portion  of  Quincy  township  de- 
veloped into  a  village.  The  stores  and  mechanical  and  professional  activ- 
ities, already  described  during  the  first  years,  did  not  stop  at  the  stage 
which  would  make  a  country  hamlet,  as  we  have  seen  to  be  the  case  in  more 
than  one  such  nucleus  of  settlement.  No  doubt  the  great  impulse  to  growth 
was  given  by  the  railroad,  which  was  built  through  the  site  of  Quincy  in 
1850.  It  is  said  that,  had  not  the  enterprise  of  several  citizens  intervened 
to  prevent,  Quincy  would  not  have  been  made  a  station  on  the  railroad, 
but  the  station  would  have  been  located  several  miles  east  on  the  county 
line.  The  location  depended  on  the  ability  of  Quincy  to  build  a  freight 
house,  and  it  was  owing  to  the  energy  and  zeal  of  the  late  Lucas  Josepih, 
whose  career  was  so  markedly  identified  at  ail  times  with  the  best  interests 
of  this  village,  that  the  building  was  erected. 

In  1853  the  old  tavern  on  the  site  of  the  Quincy  House,  one  or  two 
stores,  the  postoffice,  and  some  professional  and  mechanical  interests  were 
all  that  Quincy  could  claim  in  the  direction  of  village  growth.  But  in  the 
following  three  or  four  years  a  number  of  business  and  dwelling  houses 
were  erected.  In  1856  the  village  was  platted,  the  plat  being  signed  by 
the  owners  of  the  site,  being  the  well  known  names  of  Enos  G.  Berry, 
Joseph  Berry,  John  Broughton,  William  Cole,  John  Sebring,  WiUiam 
Arnold,  Cyrus  Lusk,  Christopher  Conley,  and  Martin  Hawley. 

Two  years  later,  when  it  is  estimated  there  were  four  hundred  people 
on  the  village  plat,  the  village  was  incorporated  by  the  county  board  of 
supervisors,  on  October   14.   1858.     At  the  first  village  election,  which  was 


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102  HISTORY  O'F  BRANCH  COUNTY 

held  in  the  following  November,  the  following  men  were  chosen  to  conduct 
the  affairs  of  the  corporation:  Ebenezer  Mudge,  President;  Moses  A. 
Hewett,  Cierk;  Cornelius  Shear,  Havens  Wilhur,  David  C.  Myers,  John 
Sebring,  William  P.  Arnoid,  Martin  Hawley,  Trustees;  Aldeii  Gregory, 
Treasurer;  Harlow  W.  WilHams  and  Julius  I.  Gregory,  Assessors;  Allen 
C.  Culver,  Marshal.  The  principal  officers  of  the  village  for  all  the  years 
will  be  found  in  the  official  lists. 

By  1870  Ouincy  had  become  a  village  of  nine  hundred  population. 
During  the  preceding  decade  its  enterprise  had  been  broadened  in  many 
ways.  A  stave  and  heading  factory  had  been  established  in  1864.  and  was 
one  of  the  cornerstones  of  the  village's  subsequent  growth.  A  sawmill  had 
been  built  in  1855  and  a  flouring  mill  in  1863. 

An  interesting  contrast  illustrating  the  growth  of  the  village  is  found 
in  the  character  of  the  buildings.  The  first  brick  building  was  erected  on 
Chicago  street  in  1855.  The  Imsiness  section  for  a  number  of  years  has 
been  composed  almost  entirely  of  this  class  of  buildings,  and  there  are  only 
a  comparatively  few  frame  structures  in  use  for  business.  Furthermore, 
the  sidewalks  are  largely  of  cement  or  brick.  The  change  from  wooden 
material  to  brick  and  stone  has  done  more  than  anything  else  to  alter  the 
outward  appearance  of  villages  and  cities  from  the  conditions  of  a  genera- 
tion past. 

In  the  direction  of  public  improvements  Ouincy  has  much  to  be  proud 
of.  A  special  election  on  August  4,  1890,  provided  for  the  bonding  of  the 
village  to  an  amount  not  to  exceed  $6,000  to  build  an  electric  light  plam. 
In  a  short  time  the  old  kerosene  street  lamps,  which  were  the  cause  of 
frequent  complaint  to  the  council,  disappeared  in  favor  of  electricity  on  the 
streets  and  in  many  of  the  stores  and  private  homes. 

Only  four  years  later  Quincy  made  another  step  in  municipal  progress, 
and  this  by  far  the  most  important  in  its  results  for  the  comfort  and  con- 
venience of  the  citizens.  There  was  a  special  election  in  the  village,  August 
6,  1894,  to  vote  on  the  council's  resolution  to  raise  not  to  exceed  $18,000 
by  bonds  for  constructing  and  maintaining  water  works.  The  proposition 
was  carried  by  a  vote  of  203  to  118,  and  the  water  works  were  built.  Tlie 
water  is  pumped  from  driven  wells  adjacent  to  the  power  house  in  the 
public  park  north  of  the  depot.  Both  the  water  works  and  the  electric  light 
plant  are  conducted  by  the  city.  Municipal  ownership  and  operation  of 
purely  public  utilities  seems  to  be  a  well  established  civic  principle  in  Branch 
County. 

The  fire  department  and  council  chambers  are  located  in  a  two-story 
brick  building  on  Main  street  north  of  Chicago.  The  fire  department,  with 
complete  apparatus  of  hose  cart,  hook  and  ladder,  truck  and  other  appur- 
tenances, with  electric  signal  alarms,  and  with  a  disciplined  force  of  volun- 
teer firemen,  had  its  origin  in  some  very  primitive  means  of  fire  protection 
adopted  by  the  village  council  over  forty  years  ago.  In  January,  1863,  the 
council  authorized  the  purchase  for  village  use  of  eight  ladders,  fire  hooks 
and  other  like  equipment,  and  in  1869  a  hundred  feet  of  hose  was  bouo-ht.' 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNl^  103 

The  Quincy  Union  Fire  Company  was  organized  in  January,  1871,  but 
their  apparatus  at  first  consisted  only  of  "  hooks,  ladders  and  pails."  Soon 
after  a  house  was  constructed  for  the  storing  of  apparatus.  In  1873  a 
second-hand  engine,  hose  cart  and  hose  were  purchased  from  Adrian  city, 
and  since  then  the  apparatus  has  been  added  to  in  keeping  with  the  growth 
of  the  village. 

Leaving  for  other  chapters  the  mention  of  specific  interests  of  Quincy, 
this  sketch  may  be  concluded  with  the  mention  of  the  business  men  who 
have  longest  been  identified  with  the  trade  and  other  interests  that  center 
about  the  intersection  of  Main  and  Chicago  streets.  D.  W.  Yoimg.  who 
has  recently  retired,  has  been  in  the  grocery  business  in  Quincy  for  forty- 
two  years.  Tlie  name  Houghtaling  is  synonymous  with  the  drug  business 
as  welt  as  with  the  public  spirit  that  has  been  responsible  for  Quincy's 
advancement.  C.  H.  Houghtaling  has  lived  in  Quincy  and  been  con- 
nected with  its  mercantile  affairs  since  1864,  and  almost  continuously  since 
1881  has  been  in  business  on  his  own  account,  the  firm  now  being  C.  H'. 
Houghtaling  and  Son.  G.  J.  Fillmore,  proprietor  of  the  Commercial  Hotel, 
which  was  formerly  the  Fayette  House,  is  another  who  has  been  identified 
with  the  business  affairs  of  Quincy  for  a  number  of  years  past.  H.  A. 
Graves,  the  present  postmaster,  who  has  lived  here  since  1865,  has  been  in 
the  grocery  business  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century.  F.  E,  Marsh,  former 
postmaster,  has  lived  in  the  village  practically  all  his  life.  As  stated  in  the 
sketch  of  the  First  National  Bank,  C.  L.  Tniesdell  has  been  connected 
with  that  institution  over  twenty  years.  Mr.  M.  S.  Segur,  who  occupies  the 
position  of  cashier  with  the  State  Bank  across  the  street,  was  in  the  mer- 
cantile business  many  years  before  entering  the  bank. 

The  oldest  merchant  in  Quincy  is  A.  L.  Lytle,  who  has  conducted  a 
general  hardware  store  since  1866.  forty  )'ears.  In  the  line  of  lumber  and 
building  material  and  planing  mill  products,  the  name  Salisbury  has  been 
known  for  half  a  century.  Thirty-five  years  ago  J.  B.  Salisbury  appears  ' 
in  an  old  directory  as  proprietor  of  a  sash,  door  and,  blind  factory  and 
steam  sawmill,  and  the  business  is  now  conducted  by  his  son  J.  N.  Salisbury, 
who  has  been  a  resident  of  Quin?y  since  1856.  Other  business  men  are 
J.  B.  Ganong,  who  engaged  in  the  hardware  business  in  Quincy  in  1882  and 
for  some  years  has  conducted  a  plumbing  business  and  windmill  and  gas- 
oHne-engine  retail  house;  also  E.  H.  Kinyon,  proprietor  of  a  general  store, 
and  C.  N.  Wilcox,  the  boot  and  shoe  man. 

The  Village  of  Eronson. 

The  Bronson  in  Branch  county  was  not  the  first  village  in  Michigan 
to  receive  that  name.  In  fact,  it  is  probable  that  the  name  of  the  pioneer 
Jabe  Bronson  would  not  have  been  perpetuated  by  the  Branch  county  vil- 
lage had  not  another  pioneer  been  deprived  of  a  similar  honor.  Here  are 
the  historical   facts  of  the  case: 

In  June,  1S29,  Titus  Bronson,  a  native  of  Middlebury,  Conn.,  came  to 


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lOi  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

the  site  of  the  present  Kalamazoo  city  and  soon  built  a  shanty,  pre-empted 
a  large  share  of  the  plain  on  which  the  village  was  built,  the  hamlet  beinig 
called  Bronson  after  its  founder.  Mr.  Bronson  laid  out  the  village  and 
set  apart  land  for  public  uses,  and  for  several  years,  when  people  spoke  of 
Bronson,  they  referred-  to  what  we  now  know  as  Kalamazoo.  But  in  1836, 
the  legislature,  at  the  instance  of  Bronson's  enemies,  it  is  alleged,  changed 
the  name  to  Kalamazoo,  and  in  the  same  year  Titus  Bronson  moved  away 
to  Illinois. 

A  year  before  Titus  Bronson,  the  founder  of  Kalamazoo,  settled  at 
that  place,  Jabe  Bronson  had  located  on  Bronson's  prairie.  He  was  also 
from  Connecticut,  and  it  is  a  reasonable  inference  that  he  was  a  relative 
of  Titus.  But  as  the  first  settler  of  this  locality  he  fared  better.  For 
not  only  was  the  township  named  for  him,  but  the  village  of  York,  as 
it  was  first  known,  became  and  has  since  remained  Bronson  village.  This 
was  done  by  an  act  of  the  legislature  approved  in  1837,  and  reading  as 
follows : 

"  All  that  portion  of  the  county  of  Branch,  known  as  the  township  of 
Prairie  River,  and  the  village  in  said  township  by  the  nam-e  of  York,  shall 
*     *     *     be  known  by  the  name  of  Bronson." 

The  village  of  Bronson  has  been  the  continuation  of  the  early  settle- 
ment begun  on  Bronson  prairie  in  1828.  An  account  of  the  beginnings  of 
this  settlement  has  been  given  in  a  pre\'ious  chapter.  Though  this  Bronson 
community  was  the  first  in  the  county  to  begin  its  life,  that  of  Quincy 
preceded  it  in  becoming  incorporated  as  a  village,  Quincy  was  incorporated 
in  1858.  it  was  not  until  eight  years  later,  1866,  that  the  Bronson  people 
applied  to  the  powers  that  be  to  become  a  village.  In  this  same  year  of 
1866,  though  a  few  months  earlier,  Union  City  had  been  incorporated,  so 
that  of  the  four  villages  in  the  county  Bronson  stands  third  in  the  order 
.  of  their  incorporation.  Sherwood,  the  fourth,  did  not  reach  this  status  un- 
til  1S87. 

In  1866  the  law  relating  to  the  incorporation  of  villages  was  the  legis- 
lative act  of  1857,  which  vested  autboMty  for  it  in  the  boards  of  super- 
visors of  counties.  At  the  October  session  of  the  board  of  supervisors  of 
Branch  county,  a  petition  was  presented  to  them  asking  that  they  incor- 
porate the  Village  of  Bronson.  This  petition  is  spoken  of  in  the  records 
of  the  board  in  the  county  clerk's  office  as  having  been  signed  by  George  F. 
Gillam,  Henry  Powers,  L.  A.  Rose  and  fourteen  others.  October  10,  1866, 
the  board  granted  unanimously  the  petition,  and  made  the  persons  within 
a  certain  tract  of  land  a  body  corporate  and  [Xilitic  under  the  name  of  the 
"  Village  of  Bronson."  Tlie  tract  of  land  was  just  a  mile  square,  and  lay 
in  sections  11,  12,  i;^,  and  ,14.  It  was  thus  described:  The  south  half  of 
the  northeast  quarter  and  the  southeast  quarter  of  section  11,  the  south 
half  of  the  northwest  quarter  and  the  southwest  quarter  of  section  12, 
the  north  half  of  the  northwest  quarter  of  section  13,  and  the  north  half  of 
the  northeast  quarter  of  section  14.     The  area  as  then  defined  has  remained 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  105 

unchanged  in  its  IxJundaries,  and  will  be  observed  to  stand  uijon  any  map 
of  it  as  a  perfect  square. 

The  act  of  incorporation  ordered  the  f:rst  election  to  "  be  held  in 
that  territory  at  the  hotel  in  Bronson  formerly  kept  by  Mariam  Thompson, 
on  Monday,  the  26th  day  of  November  next."  At  that  election  officers  were 
chosen  as  follows :  President,  Warren  Byms ;  trustees,  Cyrus  J.  Keyes, 
Jason  Shepard,  Augustus  Pixley,  Lorenzo  A.  Rose,  Leonard  C.  Qark, 
Henry  Powers;  corporation  clerk,  Andrew  S.  Parrish;  treasurer,  Joseph  E. 
Earl;  marshal,  Spellinan  Dennis;  assessor,  George  Gillam;  highway  commis- 
sioner, Joseph  E.  Earl. 

In  1871  the  village  was  reincorporated  by  an  act  of  the  state  legisia- 
ture,  approved  March  2.  The  first  election  under  the  new  charter  was  or- 
dered to  be  held  "  at  the  hotel  on  the  corner  of  Matteson  and  Chicago  streets  " 
on  the  first  Monday  of  March,  1871.  By  this  new  charter  the  marshal  was 
to  be  appointed  by  the  trustees  and  was  to  hold  office  for  one  year. 

The  numlier  of  people  who  Fssociated  themselves  together  in  1866  to 
live  as  an  incorporated  village  was  603.  This  was  the  number  found  by  a 
special  census  and  reported  to  the  board  of  supervisors  in  the  petition  for  in- 
corporation. The  volumes  of  the  national  census  of  1870  and  of  the  state 
census  of  1874  do  not  give  us  the  inhabitants  of  the  village  separate  from 
those  of  the  township.  Not  until  1880  do  the  census  men  seem  to  realize 
that  the  village  is  distinct  and  important  enough  to  be  reported  by  itself. 
But  from  1880  on  we  can  give  its  population  according  to  every  census  taken 
by  the  state  and  by  the  general  government.  It  is  as  follows:  in  1880.  826; 
in  1884,  823;  in  1890,  875;  in  1894,  864;  in  1900,  1,176;  and  in  1904,  1,107. 
In  the  14  years  from  1866  to  1880,  the  population  increased  from  603  to  826, 
or  about  200.  The  next  14  years  it  was  virtually  stationary  at  about  850. 
But  during  the  next  six  years  from  1894  to  1900  it  jumped  from  864  to  1,176, 
an  increase  of  312.  The  stationary  period  of  the  village  from  1880  on  is  a 
part  of  the  stationary  period  of  the  population  of  the  county  as  a  whole 
from  that  year  on.  exhibited  in  a  previous  chapter.  The  local  break  and 
large  increase  in  the  population  of  the  village  in  1900  is  doubtless  due  to 
the  establishment  of  the  Portland  cement  plant  a  mile  northeast  of  it 
in  1897.  That  year  igoo  was  the  high-water  mark  of  its  population  in 
the  census  years,  the  census  of  1904  showing  a  decrease  of  69  in  the  four 
years   following   1900. 

A  large  number  of  Poles  have  settled  in  Bronson  township,  but  only 
a  few  have  ever  lived  in  the  village.  In  1884  there  were  only  45  foreign- 
born  persons  in  the  village  in  a  population  of  823.  This  was  only  a 
little  more  than  five  per  cent,  or  one  in  18.  ■ 

The  more  important  events  that  have  taken  place  in  the  life  of  Bronson 
during  the  forty  years  of  its  corporate  existence  as  a  village  are  the  fol- 
lowing: The  burning  of  the  store  of  Powers  &  Gillam,  Jan.  9,  1867; 
the  erection  of  a  fine  brick  business  block  on  the  south  side  of  Chicago  street 
next  to  Matteson  street  in  1867;  the  building  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
church  in   1871;  the  building  of  the  first  Roman  Catholic  church   and  the 


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106  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

organization  of  the  Bronson  Cornet  Band  in  1877;  the  organization  of  the 
Ladies'  Library  Association  in  i88o;  the  erection  of  Clark's  opera  house, 
the  establishment  of  the  bank  of  L.  M.  Rudd  &  Son,  and  the  great  fire  on 
the  north  side  of  Chicag-o  street  in  1884;  the  fire  on  Matteson  street  in 
which  the  Htirleys  perished  in  1886;  the  introduction  of  electric  light  in 
this  same  year;  the  erection  of  the  Congregational  church  in  1887;  the 
change  of  the  Ladies'  Library  to  the  Bronson  Public  Library  in  :888;  the 
burning  of  J.  Francis  Ruggles'  valuable  collection  of  books  and  historical 
material,  and  the  erection  of  his  present  building  on  Chicago  street  in  i88g; 
the  organization  of  Warren's  Military  Band  in  1892;  the  erection  of  the 
new  Roman  Catholic  church  about  this  time,  and  later  of  St.  Mary's  School ; 
the  establishment  of  the  Portland  cement  plant  and  the  beginning  of  Coward 
Monroe's  banking  business  in  1897;  the  erection  of  the  fine  new  school 
building  in  1901 ;  and  the  or^nization  of  the  Bronson  Woman's  Qub 
in  T903. 

Mr.  Wells  Knapp  has  been  a  business  man  of  Bronson  for  thirty-nine 
years,  having  succeeded  his-  father  in  the  shoe  business.  He  came  to  a 
farm  in  Coldwater  township  in  1866  and  to  Bronson  in  September,  1867, 
where  he  opened  a  shoe  store  and  has  been  in  the  same  bxisiness  on  the  same 
spot  continuously  ever  since,  arid  his  business  career  excels  in  continuous 
length  that  of  anyone  in  Bronson. 

Joseph  Watson,  now  postmaster  and  member  of  the  firm  of  Watson 
and  Davis,  has  been  in  the  jewelry  business  for  a  quarter  of  a  century. 
George  Robinson,  the  grocer,  has  been  here  fifteen  years;  Turner  and  Bush- 
nell,  furniture,  succeeded  Amasa  Ruple  &  Son  ten  years  ago.  A.  J.  Ash- 
breck,  the  druggist,  has  been  in  business  fifteen  years.  Charles  Whitaker 
has  conducted  his  market  15  years.  Randal!  D.  Powers,  dry  goods  and  gro- 
ceries, succeeded  his  father,  Charles  Pmvers,  who  was  listed  as  a  "  general  mer- 
chant "  in  the  okl  directory  of  1870.  Werner  Brothers,  hardware  and 
carriages,  have  been  located  here  fifteen  years.  The  Clark  family  have  been 
identified  with  the  commercial  side  of  the  village  for  many  years.  Milo 
Clark  built  the  principal  hotel  about  1875.  L.  D.  Clark  was  a  merchant  on 
Matteson  street  about  thirty-five  years  ago,  and  Eugene  R.  Clark,  the  dry- 
goods  merchant,  began  business  in  his  father's  store.  Another  son  is  Mvron 
Clark,  also  a  merchant. 

The  library,  the  schools,  the  churches,  the  banks,  the  cement  works  and 
other  features  of  Bronson  are  described  in  the  proper  place  on  other  pages. 

Warren's  Military  Band,  now  the  Bronson  Band,  was  organized  in 
August,  1892.  Mr.  Fred  L.  Warren  was  the  first  leader  and  continued  in 
that  capacity  about  seven  years.  William  Henry  Davis  was  also  with  the 
band  at  the  beginning  and  succeeded  Mr.  Warren  as  leader  and  is  such  at 
the  present  time.  Tliere  were  thirteen  members  at  the  start,  now  there  are 
eighteen.  There  has  been  no  break  in  the  organization,  and  only  one  death-^ 
that  of  Mr.  Charles  Knapp.  The  "  Bronson  Cornet  Band  "  was  an  active 
organization  some  years  ago. 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  107 

Sherwood. 

SheTHOod  village  was  born  of  tlie  Air  Line  Railroad.  E.  F.  Hazen 
owned  most  of  the  land  in  section  28  on  which  the  village  has  since  l^een 
built.  The  railroad  was,  constructed  and  trains  began  running  in  1870.  Al- 
most coincideiit  with  that  event  Mr.  Hazen  and  Manton  E.  Sawin  platted  a 
village,  whose  original  name  was  designated  "  Hazenville,"  in  honor  of  its 
founder.  This  site  was  considered  either  so  unpromising  or  so  inconse^ 
qiiential  by  the  directory-makers  of  1870  that  no  mention  is  to  Ijw  foun<l  of 
any  such  village. 

Frank  M.  Warner  is  said  to  have  been  the  first  merchant  opening  a 
grocery,  in  a  building  afterward  used  as  a  hotel.  He  was  succeeded  in  1871 
by  Jerome  J.  Studley,  who  was  also  postmaster.  E.  F.  Hazen  was.  the  rail- 
road agent  at  this  point  and  also  dealt  in  grain.  The  only  im^Mrtant  industry 
in  the  place  at  this  time  was  the  steam  planing  mill,  on  the  south  side  of  the 
village,  its  early  proprietors  being  Sawin  &  Safford.  Tliere  was  also  a 
steam  sawmill  north  of  the  railroad. 

From  this  state  of  beginnings  Sherwood  increased  so  that  in  1887  it  was 
incoqrarated.  In  the  subsequent  twenty  years  its  improvement  has  been  even 
more  marked.  The  wide  streets,  lined  with  luxuriant  shade  trees,  the  hand- 
some public  park,  the  cement  walks — and  the  extent  of  these  is  a  matter  of 
special  pride— are  the  superficial  aspects  of  a  well  ordered  and  enterprising 
village.  The  first  village  cotmcil  convened  March  31,  1887,  the  principal  of- 
ficers in  that  first  body  being  Robeit  Eraser,  president,  and  Elgin  Barton, 
clerk.     The  principal  officials  of  the  village  will  be  found  on  other  pages. 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 


CHAPTER  XV. 
THE  AGRICULTURAL  INDUSTRY— THE  GRANGE, 

Agriculture  as  the  basic  industry  of  America  is  taken  so  much  as  a 
matter  of  course,  and  in  this  history  has  been  so  considered  in  its  smaller 
application  to  Branch  county,  that  specific  statement  of  its  importance  would 
be  superfluous.  The  first  settlers  in  almost  every  instance  were  farmers. 
Even  when  his  ostensible  occupation  was  in  other  lines,  the  pioneer  usually 
cultivated  a  patch  of  ground.  We  remember  that  this  was  true  of  Jabe 
Bronson,  the  tavern-keeper  and  justice.  It  was  true  of  all  those  who  had 
inns  along  the  Chicago  road;  it  was  true  of  the  earliest  merchants  and  doc- 
tors. Specialization  of  industry  did  not  arrive  till  after  the  county  was  well 
settled,  and  ability  to  till  the  soil  was  the  first  requisite  of  the  pioneer.  With 
all  the  building  of  factories  and  mills,  the  increase  of  trade,  the  growing 
importance  of  mechanical  pursuits,  and  the  attraction  of  the  professions, 
agriculture  yet  remains  the  supreme  industry  of  Branch  county.  Leaving 
aside  statistics  concerning  the  industry,  any  abundance  of  which  may  be 
found  in  agricultural  reports  and  census  returns,  it  will  be  the  purpose  of 
this  chapter  to  describe  as  far  as  possible  the  methods  and  circumstances  of 
early  agriculture,  and  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  past  indicate  the  great 
changes  that  have  preceded  modem  agriculture. 

The  pioneer  farmers  of  Branch  county  were  probably  as  progressive 
as  those  of  any  other  part  of  the  country  at  that  time.  TTiey  brought  with 
them  from  their  homes  in  the  older  states  the  methods  which  prevailed  there. 
And  as  many  of  them  came  from  the  east,  which  was  considered  the  most 
progressive  section  of  the.  country,  they  must  have  known  the  best  methods 
of  farming  which  were  practiced  in  their  day. 

But  the  first  farmers  of  this  county  were  confronted  with  a  task  such  as 
has  been  unknown  in  the  settlement  of  the  more  western  prairie  states.  The 
obstacles  to  be  overcome  were  great,  the  implements  and  means  were  primi- 
tive. The  steel  plow  was  not  invented  until  after  Branch  county  had  been 
substantially  settled  and  improved.  Whereas  the  western  prairie  sod  is 
turned  over  for  the  first  time  by  immense  gang-plows,  drawn  by  four  or 
five  horses  or  even  by  a  traction  engine,  the  farmer  of  the  twenties  and 
thirties  had  to  depend  on  a  wooden  moldboard  shod  with  an  iron  share 
roughly  made  at  a  local  blacksmith  shop.  With  this  hint  at  pioneer  condi- 
tions it  is  evident  that  agriculture  has  undergone  development  in  as  wonder- 
ful degree  as  any  other  phase  of  the  county's  history. 

The  pioneer  farmer's  first  work,  after  a  nide  temporary  shelter  had 
been  provided,  was  to  prepare  a  little  spot  of  ground  for  the  first  crop.     Those 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  109 

who  located  on  Coldwater,  Girard  and  other  well  known  prairies — and  as 
we  know  those  were  the  favorite  selections  of  the  first  settlers — were  very 
fortunate  in  this  respect.  Relieved  of  the  necessity  to  clear  off  the  trees, 
they  had  only  to  turn  over  the  sod.  But  even  so  the  undertaking  involved 
labor  that  one  man  alone  could  hardly  accomplish.  The  turf  on  the  so- 
called  prairies  was  very  tough,  and  the  ground  in  most  places  filled  with  a 
net-work  of  wire-like  roots.  If  the  location  was  in  the  woods,  it  was  neces- 
sary to  girdle  the.  trees,  clearing  away  the  underbrush  and  sweeping  the  sur- 
face with  fire.  The  dead  trunks  of  the  trees  were  usually  left  standing  the 
first  season,  and  the  corn  grew  up  among  the  aisles  of  the  blasted  forest. 

Although  the  surface  of  the  ground  had  been  cleared,  just  beneath 
there  remained  the  roots  of  the  former  growth,  and  these,  formed  into 
massive  "  stools,"  were  for  several  years  insuperable  obstacles  to  easy  farm- 
ing. An  ordinary  plow  team  would  have  been  useless  among  the  stools  and 
grubs,  and  a  common  plow  would  have  been  quickly  demolished.  The  plow 
used  was  a  massive  construction  of  wood  and  iron,  and  was  known  as  the 
"  buH  plow."  The  share  and  coulter  were  of  iron  and  made  very  heavy  and 
strong.  The  beam  was  long  and  of  huge  proportions  to  resist  the  enormous 
strain  brought  upon  it.  Usually  the  weight  of  one  of  these  ponderous  bull 
plows  was  about  three  hundred  pounds.  Six  or  seven  yoke  of  oxen,  and 
sometimes  more,  were  required  to  pull  this  implement  through  the  ground. 
With  such  an  equipment  the  ordinary  roots  were  torn  from  the  ground 
like  straws  and  subsequent  cultivation  was  made  easy.  It  usually  took  two 
persons  to  do  the  plowing,  a  man  to  hold  the  plow  and  either  a  man  or  a  boy 
to  drive  the  team.  This  process  of  "  breaking  "  new  land  was  made  a  regu- 
lar business  by  some  of  the  pioneers,  just  as  threshing  is  at  the  present 
time. 

In  a  few  years  plows  with  iron  moldboards  were  introduced,  but  as 
they  would  not  scour  well  in  all  kinds  of  soil  they  were  not  considered  a 
success  at  first.  Besides,  as  the  ground  was  full  of  roots,  of  new  stumps 
and  standing  trees,  the  wooden  moldboard  was  less  liable  to  break  than  one 
of  iron,  so  it  was  better  adapted  to  the  conditions  than  the  iron  one.  The 
cultivation  was  done  with  the  hoe  at  first,  then  came  the  single-shovel  plow, 
which  was  in  use  for  a  number  of  years.  Among  the  trees,  stumps  and  roots 
both  the  plowing  and  cultivation  were  tedious,  laborious  and  disagreeable 
work.  This  condition  continued  for  a  number  of  years  until  the  stumps  had 
decayed  sufficiently  to  make  it  possible  to  remove  them. 

The  planting  was  likewise  primitive.  As  the  sod  was  turned  over  a 
man  followed  about  every  third  furrow,  dug  into  the  top  of  the  furrow  with 
his  foot  or  with  a  hoe  and  planted  corn,  covering  it  the  same  way.  In  some 
instances  the  corn  was  dropped  in  the  furrow  very  near  the  outside,  so  that 
the  edge  of  the  next  furrow  when  turned  over  would  be  directly  over  the 
grain.  The  corn  would  then  come  through  between  the  furrows.  In  a 
somewhat  similar  way  Bishop  Chase  planted  his  first  crop  of  potatoes  in 
Gilead  in  the  summer  of  1832.  Wheat  was  sown  among  the  stumps  and 
trees.      The  grain   was  harrowed  in  with  a   wooden-toothed   harrow.      The 


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no  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

farmer  who  did  not  have  even  one  of  these  rude  implements  would  cut  a 
small  tree,  trim  off  part  of  the  limbs  so  as  to  leave  a  bushy  end,  weight  jt 
with  a  log,  and  hitching  his  team  to  it  would  get  about  the  same  results  as 
from  a  tooth  harrow. 

In  harvesting  the  corn,  the  stalk  was  not  utilized  as  is  done  at  the  pres- 
ent day.  The  prevailing  practice  was  to  pull  the  ear  from  the  stalk,  husk 
and  all,  haul  the  corn  to  a  pile  and  then  husk  it.  The  husk  was  utilized  for 
feed,  and  as  much  of  the  grain  as  was  not  needed  for  home  consumption 
was  hauled  away  to  market.  As  soon  as  large  crops  of  corn  were  grown 
husking  bees  became  the  fashion.  The  corn  was  pulled  from  the  stalk  and 
put  in  a  pile,  as  when  the  farmer  himself  or  he  and  his  family  did  the  husk- 
ing. Then  a  number  of  neighbors  assembled  and  everybody  husked.  This 
was  repeated  at  the  home  of  each  farmer  until  all  had  their  crops  husked. 

Wheat  was  harvested  with  the  cradle,  such  an  implement  as  a  reaper 
or  harvesting  machine  of  any  kind  not  then  being  dreamed  of.  Besides 
the  cradle  the  sickle  also  was  in  use  at  that  time.  But  that  was  used  only 
in  wheat  that  had  blown  down  or  grew  among  stumps  and  trees,  making  it 
difficult  and  sometimes  impossible  to  cradle.  And  for  the  first  few  years 
that  was  a  large  portion  of  the  crop.  It  was  well  that  only  a  limited  areai 
could  be  sown,  because  had  there  been  a  greater  acreage  it  doubtless  would 
not  have  been  harvested.  The  work  of  harvesting  with  those  old-time  im- 
plements was  extremely  slow  in  comparison  with  the  way  it  can  be  done  with 
our  improved  harvesting  machinery,  Tlie  inventions  with  which  we  at  this 
day  are  so  familiar  at  that  time,  even  in  their  crudest  form,  seemed  far-off 
and  visionary.  For  instance,  it  was  with  the  air  of  wonder  that  a  twentieth 
century  newspaper  would  describe  the  achievement  of  a  dirigible  air-ship 
that  an  issue  of  the  Coldwater  Sentinel  of  June,  1843,  speaks  of  a  new  reap- 
ing machine  invented  by  McCormick.  The  reader  can  judge  from  the 
description  how  crude  that  machine  was  when  compared  with  those  that  will 
be  found  in  nearly  every  farmer's  barn  at  this  age.  "  The  machine,"  reads 
the  article,  "  placed  on  small  wheels,  was  moved  by  two  horses  around  the 
rye  field  where  the  exhibition  took  place,  at  a  quick  pace:  making  a  clear 
passage  through  the  grain  as  it  moved,  about  five  feet  wide.  This  it  did 
with  a  completeness  which  it  is  impossible  for  a  cradle  to  accomplish.  The 
wheels  of  the  machine  kept  in  motion  a  saw,  with  edge  and  teeth  not  unlike 
a  reap-hook,  which  saws  down  the  grain  as  it  is  bent  and  forced  against 
its  edge  by  a  revolving  apparatus  resembling  a  seine-reel.  The  grain  falls 
upon  a  bed  or  platform  just  behind  the  teeth,  whence  it  is  raked  by  hand," 

The  threshing  was  done  either  with  a  fJail  or  the  grain  was  tramped 
out  by  horses.  Both  processes  were  very  slow,  the  former  being  about  as 
slow  as  harvesting  with  the  sickle.  When  horses  were  used  a  threshing  floor 
was  made  out  of  doors  by  smoothing  the  ground  or  beating  it  until  it  was 
as  solid  as  could  be  made.  The  horses  were  ridden  by  boys,  while  two  men 
worked  the  grain  toward  the  center  of  the  floor  and  threw  out  the  straw. 

In  the  early  forties  a  machine  came  into  use  which  threshed  out  the 
grain  and  dispensed  both  with  the  use  of  the  flail  and  the  tramping  of  horses 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  lU 

This  machine  consisted  only  of  a  cylinder  and  was  operated  by  horse  power. 
When  the  threshing  was  done  by  any  of  these  methods  the  grain  had  (o 
be  separated  from  the  chaff  by  fanning  with  a  sheet,  the  wind  blowing  the 
chaff  away.  There  were  no  fanning  mills  then,  but  they  were  introduced 
a  few  years  later.  These  mills  were  in  the  crudest  form,  but  they  were 
considered  a  great  improvement  over  the  winnowing  sheet.  All  of  this 
labor  had  to  he  done  in  order  that  the  farmer  might  produce  a  supply  of 
wheat  sufficient  to  provide  bread  for  his  famiiy  and  if  possible  a  small  sur- 
plus to  sell. 

Com  and  wheat  were  the  two  leading  crops  then  as  they  are  now. 
Other  crops  that  were  grown  were  oats,  rye,  potatoes,  buckwheat  and  flax. 
Oats  were  usually  fed  in  the  straw,  only  enough  being  threshed  out  for  the 
next  year's  seed.  A  patch  of  potatoes  was  planted  on  every  farm  for  home 
use,  but  there  were  very  few,  if  any,  grown  for  market.  The  crop  being 
a  bulky  one  and  the  market  so  distant  made  the  growing  of  potatoes  as  a 
market  crop  impracticable.  Flax  was  raised  for  home  use,  the  product  being 
manufactured  into  hnen  for  a  part  of  the  family's  wearing  apparel. 

For  many  years  the  bay  crop  consisted  of  the  native  grasses.  Many 
farmers  belie\^ed  that  the  improved  domestic  grasses  could  not  be  grown 
here,  and  it  was  some  time  before  this  prejudice  was  overcome.  When 
the  settlers  were  yet  few  in  number  the  prairie  grasses  furnished  an  abundant 
supply  of  hay  for  their  live-stock.  When  the  prairie  lands  were  all  taken 
up  each  farmer  on  those  lands  set  off  a  portion  of  his  farm  for  meadow,  but 
this  was  sufficient  only  for  the  owner,  and  those  who  had  settled  in  the 
timber  had  to  look  elsewhere  for  a  supply.  There  was  ar»  abundant  growth 
of  grass  on  what  were  then  known  as  wet  prairies,  which  we  now  call  marshes. 
At  first  every  settler  could  find  a  sufficient  supply  of  this  marsh  grass  near 
his  home  if  he  had  none  on  his  farm.  This  hay  had  to  be  mowed  by  hand, 
then  thrown  together  and  hauled  from  the  marsh  on  a  small  sled  drawn  by 
a  yoke  of  oxen,  or  even  at  times  had  to  be  carried  to  firm  ground  "  on  a 
.  pole,"  as  was  the  expression  used  at  the  time.  The  ground  was  so  soft  that 
a  team  of  horses  and  a  wagon  could  not  be  driven  over  it.  Only  a  small  bit 
could  be  hauled  out  at  a  time  in  this  way,  and  it  took  a  number  of  these  sled 
loads  to  make  a  wagon  load.  The  same  method  of  making  hay  had  to  be 
employed  on  all  the  wet  prairies  of  those  days. 

With  this  view  of  the  status  of  agriculture  sixty  years  ago,  it  is  not 
difficult  to  realize  the  broad  developments  that  have  taken  place  since  then. 
Farming  has  become  easier  with  every  year.  Its  conditions  and  surroundings 
are  no  longer  those  of  the  common  laborer.  Several  things  have  contrib- 
uted to  this  change.  Some  claim  that  the  invention  of  labor-saving  machin- 
ery and  its  general  use  has  done  more  to  elevate  agriculture  than  any  other  . 
factor.  It  certainly  is  not  wide  of  the  mark  to  measure  the  progress  of 
agriculture  by  the  distance  that  separates  the  self-binder  from  the  cradle. 
Yet  there  are  other  factors.  The  working  and  hiring  of  help  has  been 
quite  reformed  from  the  methods  of  forty  years  ago.  The  progressive 
farmer  no  longer  depends  on  transient  labor.     Not  many  years  ago,   when 


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112  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

harvest  time  or  other  extra  press  of  work  arrived,  the  farmer  would  start 
out  into  the  surrounding  country  and  hire  by  the  day  such  men  as  were 
available.  This  is  neither  practicable  nor  possible  now.  Improved  ma- 
chinery has  done  much  to  relieve  the  farmer  of  the  necessity  of  hiring  day 
laborers.  Hi.s  policy  now  is  to  hire  a  man  by  the  year,  and  often  a  man  of 
family,  who  will  Jive  on  the  farm  and  give  it  his  entire  attention. 

Transportation  has  also  effected  many  changes  in  farming  methods.  In 
place  of  marketing  by  the  bushel,  the  farmer  now  markets  "  on  the  hoof," 
that  is,  feeds  his  grain  products  to  stock.  And  of  recent  years  the  farmers 
do  not  hesitate  to  import  stock  cattle  from  distant  ranges  of  the  Dakotas  or 
the  Southwest  and  feed  them  for  market  on  grain  raised  in  Branch  county. 
This  in  itself  is  one  of  the  most  important  developments  in  Branch  county 
agriculture.  In  the  words  of  a  well  known  farmer,  "  Branch  county  is  now 
becoming  a  feeding  ground  for  foreign  stock  and  grain." 

In  a  general  upward  trend  of  property  values,  land  is  the  last  thing  to 
appreciate.  At  a  distance  of  ten  years  from  the  beginning  of  the  present 
era  of  remarkable  prosperity,  the  farm  lands  of  Branch  county  show  only  a 
slight  upward  trend  in  value.  But  there  is  greater  demand  for  land  than 
ever  before,  and  as  a  rule  it  is  passing  into  the  hands  of  an  immigrating 
farmer  class  from  Ohio  and  Northern  Indiana,  where  farm  lands  are  held 
about  twenty  per  cent  higher  than  here.  This  direction  of  immigration  will, 
if  it  continues,  prove  a  considerable  factor  in  the  next  twenty-five  years  in 
giving  type  and  character  to  the  population  of  the  county. 

In  the  matter  of  stock-raising  one  example  will  suffice.  Branch  county 
has  always  been  a  sheep  county.  Wool  was  one  of  the  first  commodities  to 
be  produced,  and  in  an  early  day  there  were  several  woolen  mills  in  the 
county.  Formerly  each  farmer  had  a  few  sheep  among  his  other  stock,  but 
no  extensive  sheep-feeding  was  done.  As  instanced  above,  sheep  are  now 
being  brought  in  from  western  ranges  to  be  fed  on  Branch  county  farms, 
and  while  the  native  sheep  are  still  a  large  number  it  is  more  profitable  tb 
import  the  stock  and  only  condition  them  for  market  in  this  county. 

One  of  the  conspicuous  methods  of  caring  for  crops  should  be  men*- 
tioned.  Within  recent  years  progressive  farmers  have  built  silo  plants  for 
the  purpose  of  preserving  the  essential  qualities  of  "  roughening  "  or  fodder 
throughout  the  winter  season.  One  of  the  first  things  to  catch  the  atteji- 
tion  on  many  farms  in  the  county  is  the  silo  plant,  and  often  there  are  several 
of  them.  In  these  huge  cylindrical,  air-tight  tanks,  built  of  "  silo  lumber," 
and  some  of  the  recent  ones  of  cement,  the  green  corn,  stalk  and  all,  after 
being  cut  up  by  a  special  machine,  is  stored  very  much  as  vegetables  are 
canned.  While  in  the  reservoir  it  undergoes  a  slight  fermentation  process, 
but  with  the  exception  of  a  small  portion  on  the  surface,  which  rots  and 
molds  just  as  the  top  of  a  can  of  fruit  often  does,  and  which  is  thrown  out 
before  the  rest  is  used,  the  entire  contents  of  the  tank  are  preserved  with 
original  sweetness  and  wholesomeness  for  feeding  to  stock  during  the  severe 
winter  season.     M'hat  an  improvement  this  method  is  over  the  old  one  of 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  113 

stacking  the  dry  fodder  in  the  late  fall,  when  most  of  its  essential  qualities 
had  dried  out,  even  one  unfamiliar  with  agriculture  can  readily  realize. 

The  Grange, 
We  have  sijoken  of  some  of  the  factors  which  have  worked  for  the  uplift 
and  improvement  of  agriculture  and  its  conditions.  The  leading  organized 
movement  tliat  has  worked  to  this  end  is  conceded  to  be  the  Grange,  whose 
basic  purposes  are  educational,  fraternal  and  the  general  improvement  of 
the  farmer  and  his  family  and  the  conditions  under  which  he  works.  The 
Grange  was  the  first  fraternal  organization  to  admit  the  wives  and  daugh- 
tei's  on  an  equal  basis  in  every  way,  and  it  has  done  more  to  educate  farming 
communities  than  any  other  movement. 

The  national  Grange  organization  was  commenced  in  1867,  but  it  was 
the  fall  of  187,^  before  the  movement  had  reached  Branch  county.  High 
tide  was  reached  in  1875,  when  the  county  had  seventeen  granges.  The 
general  name  applicable  to  the  organization  as  a  whole  is  "  Patrons  of  Hus- 
fendry."  the  "  granges  "  being  the  subordinate  branches,  but  the  name  grange 
is  the  one  generally  used  in  referring  to  all  departments  of  the  •organiza- 
tion. 

The  oldest  grange  in  the  county  with  a  continuous  existence  from  the 
date  of  foundation  to  the  present  time  is  Butler  Grange  No.  88,  which  was 
organized  October  so,  1873.  As  will  be  seen  from  the  number,  Matteson 
Grange  No.  86  was  organi;:ed  some  time  previous,  but  is  no  longer  existent. 
The  granges  in  the  state  are  numbered  according  to  the  order  of  their  for- 
mation, and  taking  the  granges  of  Branch  county  in  the  order  of  their  age, 
the  eleven  active  granges  as  well  as  those  no  longer  active  are  as  follows: 
Matteson  No.  86  (defunct),  Butler  No.  88,  Bronson  No.  91,  Batavia  No.  95, 
Sherwood  No.  96,  Union  No.  97,  Athens  No.  98  (whose  members  were  mainly 
from  Branch  county — now  defunct),  Kinderhook  No.  135  (defunct),  Girard 
No.  136,  Coldwater  No.  137,  Grove  No.  13S  (defunct),  Bethel  No.  148 
(defunct),  Quincy  No.  152,  Summit  No.  217  (defunct),  California  No.  233 
(defunct),  North  Algansee  No.  234,  Champion  No.  261  (defunct),  Gilead 
No.  40c,  and  Four  Towns,  which  has  been  recently  organized.  How  rapidly 
these  granges  were  organized  during  the  first  years  of  the  movement  may 
be  inferred  from  the  fact  that  though  Girard  Grange  No.  136  was  organized 
November  25,  1873,  only  a  few  weeks  after  Butler,  there  were  six  Branch 
county  granges  that  intervened,  while  its  number  was  forty-eight  removed 
from  Butler, 

The  grange  meetings  were  at  first  held  in  some  convenient  schoolhouse, 
but  now  nearly  every  grange  in  the  county  owns  its  own  hall,  which  is  dedi- 
cated to  the  use  of  the  society  and  is  seldom  used  for  any  other  purpose. 
The  strength  of  the  grange  in  this  county,  in  point  of  membership,  is  be- 
tween eight  hundred  and  a  thousand  members.  There  is  a  regular  system 
of  representation  in  the  organization  from  the  subordinate  bodies  through 
the  State  and  National  bodies.  From  the  eleven  subordinate  granges  in 
this  county  three  delegates  are  elected  to  the  annual  meeting  of  the  State 


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11*  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

Grange,  and  Pomona  Grange,  which  is  the  county  grange,  is  entitled  to  one 
delegate  to  the  State  Grange.  The  masters  of  the  State  Grange  are  the 
official  delegates  to  the  National  Grange. 

Branch  County  Pomona  Grange  No.  22,  which  is  a  connecting  link 
between  the  subordinate  granges  and  the  State  Grange  and  which  exercises 
friendly  and  advisory  oversight,  but  no  official  control,  over  the  subordinate 
bodies,  was  organized  March  21,  1878.  The  petitioners  for  its  organization 
were :  George  W.  Van  Aken,  a  pioneer  granger,  who  was  active  in  the 
formation  of  the  Girard  Grange  in  1873;  John  G.  Parkhurst  and  wife,  Eli 
Bidleman,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  H.  B.  George,  Charles  H.  Austin.  D.  C.  Fonda, 
A.  S.  Archer,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  J.  C.  Pierce,  William  Joseph,  Wallace  E.  Wright, 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  John  H.  Jones.  r>arwin  Thompson,  and  John  Bell. 

The  officers  of  Pomona  Grange  for  1906  are:  Master,  Isaac  E.  Corless; 
overseer,  Belle  Bailey;  lecturer,  Mrs.  Lucy  Corless;  steward.  A,  L.  Smith; 
asst.  steward,  P'rank  Coward;  treasurer,  I,  A.  Martin;  secretary,  Asa  W. 
Ferguson;  gatekeeper,  I.  A.  Van  Orsdal;  pomona,  Mrs.  Elmer  Warner; 
flora,  Mrs.  Fred  Locke;  ceres,  Theda  Bailey;  lady  assistant  steward,  Mrs. 
L  A.  Maj-tin. 

A  few  words  should  be  said  about  the  work  of  the  grange  in  general. 
The  grange  was  one  of  the  most  active  forces  behind  pure-food  legislation 
in  Michigan,  and  to  its  efforts— to  give  only  one  example — is  due  the  fact 
that  oleomargarine  must  be  labeled  with  its  true  name  and  not  as  butter. 
The  grange  has  more  or  less  actively  entered  the  field  of  commerce.  In 
some  counties  "  Grange  Stores "  have  been  established  and  successfully 
conducted. 

The  grange  claims  to  be  the  father  of  rural  free  delivery.  Certainly 
it  has  used  its  influence  nowhere  to  better  advantage,  for  free  delivery  in 
the  country  is  now  conceded  to  be  the  greatest  boon  that  has  come  to  the 
farmer.  It  has  brouglit  the  farmer  in  touch  with  the  world  and  more  than 
anything  else  has  made  obsolete  the  term  "  countryfied  "  as  applied  to  the 
tiller  of  the  soil.  And  this  is  in  direct  line  with  the  purposes  of  the  grange, 
as  stated  in  a  former  paragraph, 

When  the  grange  first  brought  the  matter  before  Congress,  it  was 
objected  that  the  "  system  would  be  too  expensive,"  despite  its  great  benefits. 
Tentative  experiments  were  made  at  rural  delivery  of  mail  about  1894.  In 
1896  the  annual  report  of  the  State  Grange  "  hails  with  delight  that  the  plan 
is  to  be  started  in  this  state."  As  is  well  known,  the  movement  thus  begun 
has  now  spread  all  over  the  country  and  every  farmer  in  Branch  county  can 
have  his  daily  paper  with  little  if  any  more  exertion  than  the  citizen  of  the 
village  or  city. 

BRANCH    COUNTY  FARMERS'  INSTITUTE  SOCIETY. 

This  society,  so  closely  identified  with  the  interests  of  the  agriculturist 
that  its  history  belongs  to  this  chapter,  was  organized  at  Coldwater  July  27, 
1895,  with  thirty-two  charter  members.  The  constitution  proposed  by  the 
state  board  of  agriculture  was  adopted,  and  the  following  were  elected  its 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  115, 

first  officers:  L.  M.  Marsh,  president;  A.  J.  Aldrich,  secretary-treasurer. 
The  executive  commitlee  was  composed  of  the  president,  the  secretary  and 
A.  L.  Smith,  E.  E,  Lewis,  and  A.  M.  Ettieridge.  TTie  vice-presidents  from 
the  various  townships  and  wards  were:  Butler,  T,  P.  Evans;  Quincy, 
A.  M.  Etheridge;  Algansee,  A.  F.  Archer;  California,  John  Flynn;  Kinder- 
hook,  A.  C  Doerr:  Ovid,  E.  C.  Lockwood;  Coldwater,  Henry  Straight; 
Girard,  A.  L.  Smith;  Union,  Byron  W.  Bray;  Batavia,  Edwin  R  Lewis; 
Bethel,  Henry  Fowler ;  Gilead,  E.  G.  Luce ;  Noble,  Ambrose  Eushnell ;  Bron- 
son.  Richard  Coward;  Matteson,  Amos  Gardner;  Sherwood,  L.  P.  Wilcox; 
Coldwater,  first  ward,  Cyrus  G.  Luce ;  second  ward,  George  W.  Van  Aken ; 
third  ward,  G.  H.  Turner;  fourth  ward,  E.  W.  Treat. 

The  society  had  a  totai  membership  in  1899  of  335,  and  it  has  main- 
tained that  strength,  the  membership  in  1906  being  332.  The  meeting  of 
February,  1906,  was  the  largest  ever  held,  3,731  persons  attending  the  lit- 
erary, musical  and  educative  programs  offered. 

The  officers  for  1906  are  as  follows:  Abram  L.  Smith,  president; 
Henry  E.  Straight,  secretary-treasurer ;  and  vice-presidents :  California,  D. 
T.  Bascom;  Kinderhook,  A.  C.  Doerr;  Gilead,  W.  J.  Bucklin;  Noble,  A. 
Bushnell;  Algansee,  L.  G.  Taylor;  Ovid,  Lafayette  Scheidler;  Bethel,  Charles 
Daniels;  Bronson,  Frank  Coward;  Bronson  Village,  T.  A.  Eberhard;  Quincy, 
M.  D.  Knauss;  Quincy  Village,  A.  L,  Bowen;  Coldwater,  Robert  Brewster; 
first  ward,  M.  E.  Wattles;  second  ward,  L.  E.  Lockwood;  third  ward,  C.  J. 
Thorpe;  fourth  ward,  E.  W.  Treat;  Batavia,  L  A.  Martin;  Matteson,  Frank 
Martin ;  Butler,  F.  M.  Holmes ;  Girard,  E.  T.  Waffle ;  Union,  B.  W.  Bray ; 
Union  City,  D.  D,  Buell;  Sherwood,  J.  S.  Dunks;  Sherwood  Village,  F.  m! 
Daniels. 

BRANCH    COUNTY   AGRICULTUR.'VI,    SOCIETY.  ' 

This  society,  under  whose  auspices  the  county  fairs  have  always  been 
conducted,  was  organized  October  17,  1S51.  The  first  officers  of  the  society 
were  James  B.  Tompkins,  president ;  John  Allen,  vice-president ;  F.  V.  Smith, 
secretary;  and  H.  W.  Wright,  treasurer.  Other  well  known  men  took  part 
in  the  work  of  organization,  such  as  Asahel  Brown,  Alvarado  Brown,  K  B. 
Pond,  William  P.  Arnold,  Darwin  Wilson,  John  Root,  Oliver  Burdick,  Jr., 
Emerson   Marsh. 

The  first  annual  fair  was  held  at  Coldwater  October  7,  1S52,  only  one 
day  being  given  to  it  and  the  premium  list  aggregating  only  two  hundred 
dollars.  In  1854  the  session  was  extended  to  three  days.  In  the  same  year 
the  society  purchased  six  acres  on  Grand  street  near  the  north  edge  of  the 
village,  as  a  place  for  holding  their  exhibitions.  This  ground  was  sold  in 
1863,  and  the  Agricultural  Society  and  the  Coldwater  Agricultural  and 
Breeders'  Association,  which  had  been  organized  in  1862,  united  in  buying 
twenty  acres  on  the  west  side  of  Marshall  street  near  the  north  side  of  the 
village.  This  is  the  ground  now  commonly  referred  to  as  "  the  old  fair 
grounds."     It  was  increased  to  thirty  acres  in  1878. 

Fairs  were  held  annually  until  after  1897,  and  the  association  did  much 
to  promote  agricultural  and  live-stock  interest  in  the  county. 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

MANUFACTURING  IN   BRANCH   COUNTY. 

It  would  be  interesting  to  know  just  how  the  population  of  Branch  county 
is  classified  among  the  various  business  activities,  that  is,  the  proportion  of 
the  county's  twenty-six  thousand  people  engaged  in  each  general  class  of 
occupation.  At  best  it  would  be  possible  only  to  approximate  such  a  classi- 
fication. But  as  regards  the  industrial  and  manufacturing  situation,  some 
very  interesting  deductions  may  be  drawn  from  the  last  report  of  the  Michi- 
gan Bureau  of  Labor,  giving  the  results  of  factory  inspection  made  in  this 
county  in  April,  1905, 

In  this  report  sixty-one  firms  and  factories  are  named,  thirty-four  of 
which  are  located  at  Coldwater,  nine  at  Union  City,  eight  at  Quincy,  seven 
at  Bronson,  two  at  Sherwood  and  one  at  Batavia.  The  whole  number  of 
employes  found  at  the  time  of  inspection  was  1,173.  This  approximates 
fi.ve  per  cent  of  the  population  of  Branch  county  dependent  on  what  are 
officially  designated  as  "  factory  "  industries.  Were  the  data  at  hand  for 
a!i  the  handicrafts  and  manufactories  of  the  county,  the  proportion  of  those 
engaged  in  industrial  pursuits  would  he  much  larger,  perhaps  at  least  ten 
per  cent  of  the  entire  population. 

Of  the  plants  reported,  thirty-four  were  located  at  Coldwater.  In 
these  twenty-three  kinds  of  goods  were  made  or  handled.  There  were  re- 
ported 712  employes,  indicating  that  in  a  city  of  six  thousand  population 
one  person  out  of  nine  depends  on  these  industries  for  means  of  livelihood. 
This  proportion  is  too  small  to  place  Coldwater  among  so-called  "  factory 
towns,"  where  the  percentage  of  factory  operatives  is  often  twenty-five  per 
cent  of  the  population;  at  the  same  time  this  form  of  activity  is  a  consid- 
erable and  distinct  part  of  the  city's  general  prosperity. 

Of  the  manufacturing  establishments  named  in  the  report,  those  which 
extent  of  business  or  length  of  time  established  make  worthy  of  mention  in 
this  chapter  are : 

At  Bronson:  The  Bronson-Kalamazoo  Portland  Cement  Company, 
which  was  established  in  1897  and  at  the  date  of  inspection  had  61  employes' 
(See  elsewhere.)  The  Bronson  Basket  factory,  established  in  1895;  the 
electric  light  plant,  established  in  1886;  the  William  Friedrich  -Company 
(see  elsewhere). 

At  Coldwater:  Ball  Brothers  Planing  Mill,  established  in  1866  and 
employing  14  hands  at  the  time  of  inspection;  the  Coldwater  Gas  and  Fuel 
Company,  organized  in  i860,  having  14  employes  in  1905;  W.  A.  Coombs 
Milling  Company,  the  early  history  of  which  is  given  elsewhere,  and  which 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  117 

at  its  three  establishments  employs  36  men ;  the  Conover  Engraving  and 
Printing  Company,  established  in  1898  and  employing  nine  persons;  the  City 
Brewery,  established  in  1894;  Charles  W.  Chapman,  manufacturer  of  cigars, 
established  in  1880:  Henry  B.  George,  custom  flour  and  feed  grinding,  estab- 
lished in  1880;  Hellinburg  &  Son,  turning  and  wood  work,  16  employes, 
and  established  in  1876;  Johnson  Cooperage  Company,  established  in  1868; 
National  Burial  Device  Company,  14  employes,  estabiished  in  1899;  Pratt 
Manufacturing  Company  (see  elsewhere) ;  A.  J,  Pierce,  cigar  manufacturer, 
10  employes,  established  in  1890;  Regal  Gasoline  Engine  Company  (see 
elsewhere);  William  H.  Schmedlen,  carriages,  established  in  1SS3;  Titus 
Thurlow,  iron  castings,  established  in  1868:  Tappan  Shoe  Manufacturing 
Company,  with  86  employes,  established  in  1897;  Wolverine  Portland  Ce- 
ment Company   (see  elsewhere.) 

At  Quincy:  Globensky  Brothers,  barrel  manufacturers  (see  elsewhere)  ; 
Felix  A.  McKenzie.  milling  (see  elsewhere);  J.  N.  Salisbury,  building  ma- 
terial, established  in  1886;  Wolverine  Portland  Cement  Company,  estab- 
lished in  1899  (see  elsewhere). 

At  Sherwood:  J.  N.  French,  iumljer,  with  22  employes,  established 
in   1881 ;   Sherwood  Heading  Company    (see  elsewhere). 

At  Union  City:  B.  F.  Green,  general  repairing,  established  in  1870; 
Peerless   Portland   Cement   Comixiny    (see  elsewhere). 

SOME    BEPKESKNTATIVE    MANUFACTURING    ESTABLISHMENTS.* 

B.  H.  Calkins  &  Son  Co.,  manufacturers  of  cooperage  and  cooperage 
stock  at  Coldwater,  was  first  organized  in  Butler  township  in  1869.  by 
B.  H.  Calkins  and  his  brother  M.  M.  Calkins,  and  was  known  as  Calking 
Brothers.  Owing  to  a  lack  of  railroad  facilities  in  that  place  the  factory  was 
removed  in  187;]  to  its  present  location.  After  locating  in  Coldwater,  Mr. 
L.  B.  Johnson,  G.  H.  Taylor,  and  the  banking  firm  of  Bowen  &  McGowan 
also  entered  into  partnership.  This  arrangement  existed  imtil  1877.  During 
all  of  the  subsequent  changes,  Mr.  B.  H.  Calkins  has  been  at  the  head.  Since 
1897  Mr.  M.  D.  Calkins  has  been  a  member  of  the  firm,  and  up  to  June  23, 
1905,  the  firm  was  known  as  B.  H.  Calkins  &  Son,  at  which  time  the  com- 
pany was  incorporated  under  its  present  name,  B.  H.  Calkins  &  Son  Co. 
The  business  has  always  been  successful,  although  passing  through  five  fires, 
the  last  being  March  6,  1901,  at  which  time  Mr.  B.  H.  Calkins  was  severely 
burned,  and  was  forced  to  give  up  active  business  relations.  He  never  re- 
covered from  the  shock  to  the  nervous  system,  and  passed  away  October  1 5, 
1905.  Mr.  M.  D.  Calkins,  who  has  had  charge  of  the  business  since  March, 
1901,  is  president  and  manager  of  the  corporation,  Miss  Almera  H.  Calkins, 
secretary  and  treasurer.  This  business  has  afforded  a  market  to  the  farmers 
for  all  kinds  of  timber,  at  good  prices.     The  firm  purchase  each  year  from 

♦Letters  asking  for  data  were  sent  to  sll  the  larger  mami tact n ring  firms  in  the  county 
and  information  has  been  nought  from  other  sources,  but  sufficient  material  for  a  sketch  was 
not,  obtained  in  every  case.^EoiTOH. 


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118  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

eight  to  ten  thousand  cords  of  timber,  which  means  a  yearly  expenditure  of 
$30,cxx>  in  that  Hne.  They  also  pay  out  an  equal  amount  for  labor.  The 
firm  enjoys  a  large  trade  in  flour,  cement,  poultry,  glass,  fruit  and  pork 
barrels.  A  great  amount  of  the  heading  and  staves  manufactured  is  also 
shipped  to  outside  shops. 

The  Pratt  Manufacturing  Company  was  established  in  1882  by  J.  F. 
Pratt  and  Wellington  Chase,  who  came  to  Coldwater  from  Homer,  New 
York,  in  that  year.  The  business  was  started  under  the  name  of  Pratt  ■& 
Chase'  and  continued  under  that  title  until  the  death  of  Mr.  Chase  in  1890. 
The  business  was  established  in  a  modest  way  in  an  old  country  tavern  or 
inn  known  as  the  Bolster  House  and  located  at  the  corner  of  Railroad  and 
Division  streets.  Changes  and  additions  to  the  building  were  rapidly  made 
until  within  ten  years  the  old  tavern  had  almost  entirely  disappeared.  In 
1902  Mr,  J-  F.  Pratt  retired  from  the  business,  and  a  corporation  was  formed, 
which  took  over  the  entire  business  and  plant  which  had  accumulated  up 
to  that  time.  At  present  the  buildings  have  about  80,000  feet  of  floor  space, 
and  gi\'e  steady  employment  the  year  round  to  about  125  men.  The  product, 
which  consists  of  children's  sleds  as  the  larger  part,  is  sold  through  the  entire 
snow-belt  of  the  United  States.  During  the  spring  and  summer  months 
this  company  manufactures  a  line  of  porch  and  lawn  furniture,  which  is 
shipped  throughout  the  United  States  from  ocean  to  ocean.  The  officers 
of  the  company  are  H.  B.  Fisher,  president ;  A.  B.  Schied,  vice-president : 
A.  J.   Pratt,  secretary  and  treasurer. 

The  Regal  Gasoline  Engine  Company,  manufacturers  of  marine  and 
stationary  engines,  Coldwater,  was  incorporated  in  August,  1901.  The  pres- 
ent officers  of  the  company  are  A.  E.  Robinson,  president:  H,  D.  Robinson, 
vice-president ;  H.  R.  Saunders,  secretary  and  treasurer.  All  of  the  stock  is 
owned  by  these  and  Elmer  J.  Allen.  They  build  a  line  of  marine  engines, 
also  some  sizes  of  stationary  engines,  but  give  marine  engines  the  most 
attention,  They  employ  30  to  40  machinists.  The  output  is  sold  princi- 
pally on  the  eastern  coast  from  Maine  to  Florida,  on  the  western  coast  from 
Seattle  to  San  Diego.  They  also  have  many  desirable  agencies  in  New 
England,  middle  states  and  extreme  south.  They  have  an  excellent  trade 
with  New  Zealand,  Australia.  Fiji  Islands,  Italy,  Belgium,  and  Finland, 
The  Regal  Gasoline  Engine  Company  started  in  rather  a  small  way,  but 
has  steadily  increased  in  size. 

The  Conover  Engraving  and  Printing  Company  was  founded  in  1877 
by  the  late  J.  S.  Conover,  The  beginning  was  a  small  one,  the  outfit  con- 
sisting of  a  small  hand  lever  printing  press  and  some  second-hand  tvpe  from 
the  "  hell-box  "  of  a  Quincy  printing  office,  but  under  careful  management 
the  business  grew  rapidly  and  in  1881  the  present  building  was  purchased 
and  new  machinery  and  material  were  added  as  fast  as  needed.  Althmigh 
all  classes  of  engraving  and  general  commercial  printing  are  done  here,  still 
the  Conover  Engraving  and  Printing  Company  makes  a  specialty  of  labels 
and  show  cards,  as  well  as  high-class  color  work.'  A  leading  feature  is  the 
manufacture  of  'cigar  labels.     The  Conover  establishment  is  a  model  engrav- 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  119 

ing  and  printing  plant.  The  headquarters,  are  in  a  substantial  three-story 
brick  block  on  West  Chicago  street,  the  three  floors  being  devoted  to  the 
business.  The  printing  equipment  is  one, of  the  best  in  this  portion  of  the 
state  and,  as  can  well  be  imagined,  the  patronage  is  very  large. 

The  Johnson  Cooperage  Company  was  established  in  Coldwater  in  1868 
by  Mr.  Chas.  W.  Johnson.  The  first  plant  was  of  necessity  a  small  one, 
but  it  has  steadily  grown  until  today  the  factory  and  yards  cover  over  five 
acres  of  ground.  The  company  manufactures  barrels,  kegs,  paiis,  etc.  The 
Johnson  Cooperage  Company  was  organized  in  its  present  form  in  1894, 
capitalized  at  $15,000. 

The  Coldwater  Gas  Light  and  Fuel  Company  had  its  origin  in  i860, 
when  A.  W.  Parkhurst,  H.  C.  Lewis,  J.  G.  Parkhurst.  D.  S.  Harrington  and 
Artemus  Allen  organized  the  Coldwater  Gas  Light  Company,  with  a  capital 
stock  of  $25,000.  The  works  were  built  in  i86i,  and  extensions  and  im- 
provements have  taken  place  consistent  with  the  growth  of  the  business  and 
the  city.  Through  the  efforts  of  the  late  William  A.  Coombs  the  business 
was  reorganized  in  1895  as  the  Coldwater  Gas  Light  and  Fuel  Company 
with  a  capital  stock  of  $40,000.  It  is  estimated  that  there  are  a  thousand 
patrons  of  the  company  in  Coldwater,  where  gas  has  been  in  general  use  for 
fuel  and  light  during  nearly  half  a  century.  The  present  officers  of  the 
company  are:  L  M.  Wing,  president;  J.  W.  Thompson,  vice-president; 
Geo.  C.  Turner,  secretary  and  superintendent;  W.  E.  Moss,  treasurer. 

The  Sherwood  Heading  Company,  manufacturers  of  slack  barrel  and 
keg  heading,  was  organized  and  put  in  operation  about  the  year  1883  by 
Stafford  &  Ott,  sold  to  H.  Sayers  &  Son  about  1886,  then  to  C.  B.  Wilcox 
in  i8g6,  then  to  J.  F.  Mclntyre  &  Company.  April  15,  1903,  and  reorganized 
January  i,  1906,  under  the  name  of  Sherwood  Heading  Company,  which 
is  the  firm  name  now.  They  employ  about  fifteen  men,  on  an  average,  and 
turn  and  sell  about  one  carload  of  heading  per  week,  which  is  sold  al!  over 
the  country,  but  principally  in  New  York  and  Pittsburg,  Pa.  They  use 
from  five  thousand  to  six  thousand  cords  of  bolts  each  year  to  get  out  this 
amount  of  stock.  The  officers  of  the  company  are :  J.  F.  Mclntyre,  presi- 
dent and  general  manager :  Geo.  H.  Seymour,  vice-president  and  treasurer ; 
Guv  E.   Mclntyre,  superintendent  and  secretary. 

The  William  H.  Friedrich  Comixiny,  manufacturers  of  veneers  at  Bron- 
son,  whose  plant  was  entirely  burned  June  3,  1906,  commenced  operation  in 
Bronson  in  1900  by  remodeling  and  installing  an  electric  light  plant  which 
■  then  had  about  450  lights.  The  village  now  has  over  three  thousand  lights 
installed,  which  shows  a  lively  increase  for  the  size  of  the  town.  In  1901 
the  company  added  the  coal  business,  which  has  been  well  patronized  ever 
since,  and  m  1902  .started  the  veneer  mill,_  making  a  good  home  market 
for  high-grade  logs  and  timber,  which  business  has  also  increased  every 
year.  In  1903  was  added  a  saw  mill,  which  also  made  a  home  market  for 
cheaper  grades  of  timber,  and  with  the  combined  industries  the  plant  was 
running  day  and  night  at  the  time  it  burned.  They  took  measures  to  rebuild 
at  once. 


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130  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

Globensky  Brothers,  at  Quincy,  are  the  successors  in  manufacturing  of 
the  Quincy  Stave  and  Heading"  Factory,  which,  as  elsewhere  stated,  was 
one  of  the  first  large  industries  in  the  village.  It  was  established  by  H.  L. 
and  E.  G.  Lownsberry  and  L.  P.'  Alden  in  1864,  was  for  some  time  con- 
ducted under  the  firm  name  of  H.  L.  Lownsberry  &  Company,  and  its  manu- 
factured product  of  staves  and  headings  was  very  large,  as  many  as  fifty 
persons  often  being  employed.  Gfobensky  Brothers  bought  the  plant  about 
1890,  and  after  remodeling  and  refurnishing,  began  a  general  tarrel,  stave 
and  cooperage  business. 

The  McKenzie  Cereal  Food  and  Milling  Company  is  another  Quincy 
manufacturing  plant  that  is  historical  as  well  as  extensive  in  its  present 
business.  Tlie  first  flour  mill  was  built  in  Quincy  in  1S63,  and  it  is  from 
this  small  mill,  through  a  number  of  successors,  that  the  present  plant  origi- 
nated. Mr.  F.  A.  McKenzie  has  been  the  energizing  spirit  since  1887,  at 
which  time  the  business  passed  under  control  of  the  firm  of  McKenzie  and 
Hyslop.  In  1894  Mr.  McKenzie  became  sole  proprietor,  and  in  1903  the 
business  was  incorporated  mider  the  name  as  given  above,  Mr.  McKenzie 
owning  most  of  the  stock.  The  plant  has  been  entirely  rebuilt  five  times 
and  its  capacity  increased  accordingly.  From  ten  to  fifteen  men  are  employed' 
and  the  company  has  a  warehouse  in  Erie.  Penn.,  for  the  distribution  of 
their  products,  which  consist  of  several  special  food  preparations,  liesides 
flour,  buckwheat  and  mill  feed. 

The  Portland  Cement  Industry. 

Until  a  few  years  ago  the  natural  products  of  Branch  county  were  prac- 
tically all  confined  to  the  agricultural  class.  There  are  no  coal  deposits 
beneath  the  surface,  no  certain  supply  of  gas,  no  minerals.  Brick  has  been 
made  here  from  an  early  day,  there  is  a  supply  of  building  stone,  but  aside 
from  these  the  products  of  the  county  have  been  mainly  those  of  the  soil. 

From  the  enrly  days  the  settlers  had  known  of  the  existence  of  marl, 
more  populariy  called  "  merle  "  or  "  bog  lime."  No  doubt  they  had  discov- 
ered it  in  sinking  their  wells.  They  also  found  that  this  marl  would  serve 
as  a  substitute  for  quick-lime  in  making  building  mortar,  and  as  lime,  like 
all  other  materials  that  had  to  be  imported,  was  hard  to  get  and  exjiensive 
to  the  first  settlers,  where  a  marl  deposit  was  convenient  they  used  the  raw 
material  for  plastering  up  the  chinks  of  their  log  houses.  In  some  locaflties 
the  marl  was  burned  in  kilns  and  thus  reduced  to  quick-lime.  It  is  said  that, 
scattered  over  the  marl-producing  area,  many  log  houses  are  still  standing 
which  were  built  with  mortar  of  this  kind,  or  even  with  the  nnbvirned  marl 
itself. 

Lime  lake  on  section  26  of  Batavia  township  was  named  because  of 
the  deposit  of  marl  found  along  its  shores.  The  manufacture  of  lime  from 
this  deposit  is  proved  by  an  advertisement  that  appeared  in  the  CoMwater 
Sentinel  in  November,  1843.  In  this  paper  it  is  stated  that  Hervev  Miller 
"  has  constantly  on  band  a  quantity  of  lime  at  his  kiln,  five  miles  west  of  this 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  121 

village  on  the-  Chicago  road.  It  is  nmnufactiired  from  the  marl  of  the 
marshes,  and  is  as  strong  as  the  best  stone  lime." 

But  aside  from  this  manufacture  and  use  of  the  marl  deposits,  marl  did 
not  become  an  article  of  commercial  importance  in  Branch  county  until  very 
nearly  the  close  of  the  last  century.  From  the  preceding  paragraph  it  is  evi- 
dent that  marl  is  not  a  recent  "  discovery  "  in  this  county,  any  stories  to  that 
effect  notwithstanding.  But  it  was  only  ten  years  ago  that  the  marl  deposits 
became  the  basis  for  the  most  valuable  manufacturing  interests  which  the 
county  possesses. 

Marl  and  clay  are  the  principal  raw  materials  in  the  manufacture  of 
Portland  cement.  The  existence  of  both  in  large  quantities  in  Branch 
county  makes  this  a  field  of  great  value  for  the  production  of  cement.  It  is 
hardly  necessary  to  state  the  commercial  uses  to  which  Portland  cement  is 
now  put  in  the  world's  industries.  It  is  only  a  few  years  since  it  began  to 
enter  into  engineering  and  architectural  construction,  and  now  it  is  being 
used  by  the  millions  of  barrels.  Vast  quantities  will  be  used  in  constructing 
the  Panama  canal.  Its  use  in  steel  construction  is  now  thoroughly  estab- 
lished. Cement  blocks  are  being  substituted  for  stone  and  brick  in  dwelling, 
business  and  public  edifices.  Stone,  brick  and  wood  have  been  building  ma- 
terials through  all  the  ages.  The  age  of  "  steel  construction  "  began  some 
years  ago ;  and  this  history  is  being  written  at  what  is  probably  the  beginning 
of  a  "  cement  age,"  in  which  cement  either  alone  cr  in  combination  will  be 
employed  in  greater  quantities  than  any  other  material. 

Michigan  now  manufactures  cement  next  in  quantity  to  New  Jersey, 
although  ten  years  ago  this  product  was  inconsiderable  in  this  state  and  was 
confined  almost  entirely  to  New  Jersey,  New  York  and  Pennsylvania.  Branch 
county  can  claim  recognition  as  a  pioneer  in  this  manufacture.  Not  only  had 
the  existence  of  marl  beds  been  known  for  years,  but  experimentation  and 
prospecting  had  been  done  for  several  years  before  the  first  plant  was  actually 
established.  Hiram  Bennett,  of  QuJncy,  after  having  visited  the  cement 
■works  at  South  Bend  and  finding  that  marl  was  used  in  *he  manufacture  of 
cement,  in  1892  prospected  in  and  around  the  lakes  in  the  eastern  part  of 
the  county,  and  tried  to  induce  capitaHsts  to  invest  nn^ney  in  an  enterprise 
which  would  make  use  of  the  marl.  But  nothing  was  effected,  and  it  re- 
mained for  another  village  of  the  county  to  gain  the  first  h^nor  for  beginning 
the  manufacture  of  cement  from  the  marl  beds. 

The  oldest  cement  manufactory  in  the  county  is  at  Union  City.  Not 
only  so,  but  it  is  claimed  that  it  is  the  oldest  successful  Portland  cement  com- 
pany in  Michigan.  The  Peerless  Portland  Cement  Company  was  organized 
August  23.  1896,  incorporated  under  the  laws  of  Michigan,  with  a  capital 
of  $250,000,  and  first  began  the  manufacture  of  cement  in  1897.  Important 
changes  in  equipment  and  methods  were  made  from  time  to  time,  and  the 
daily  capacity  is  now  1,800  barrels  of  the  Peerless  brand.  The  plant  is 
located  at  Union  City,  and  the  company  owns  marl  and  clay  lands  within  a 
mile  of  the  works  and  also  at  Spring  Arbor.  Mr.  J.  R.  Patterson  has  been 
manager  of  the  company  since  1899. 


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122  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

A  brief  description  of  the  process  of  manufacture  at'this  plant  will 
apply  to  cement  manufacture  in  general  throughout  the  county.  The 
marl  is  dredged  from  the  lakes  and  loaded  on  cars  and  hauled  to  the  factory 
by  a  railroad  owned  and  operated  by  the  company.  There  the  marl  is  weighed 
and  dumped  directly  into  a  mixing  machine,  where  water  and  the  right 
amount  of  clay  are  added.  After  a  thorough  mixing  in  this,  it  is  dumped 
into  a  pug  mill,  where  the  mixing  process  continues.  After  a  sufficient 
pugging,  the  mass,  then  called  "  slurry,"  is  run  into  a  large  vat,  which  is 
furnished  with  mixing  and  stirring  devices.  As  soon  as  one  vat  is  filled  and 
thoroughly  mixed,  two  samples  are  taken  for  analysis.  If  the  composition 
proves  to  be  lacking  in  any  respect  the  required  ingredient  is  added  and  the 
whole  mass  mixed,  sampled  and  analj'zed  as  before.  Thia  is  repeated  until 
the  correct  chemical  composition  is  obtained.  The  slurry  is  then  elevated 
and  run  into  large  cylinder  tube  mills  half  filled  with  Bint  pebbles.  As  these 
mills  revolve  the  slurry  is  ground  to  a  fine  silky  paste.  As  the  slurry  leaves 
the  tube  mills  it  is  conveyed  into  large  storage  vats,  where  it  is  kept  in  con- 
stant motion  by  the  aid  of  compres,sed  air,  thus  avoiding  all,  settling  and 
assuring  additional  mixing.  From  these  vats  it  is  again  elevated  and  passed 
into  a  battery  of  rotary  kilns.  These  rotaries  at  the  Union  City  plant  are 
each  seventy  feet  long.  The  slurry  runs  in  at  one  end  and  in  its  progress 
through  the  kiln  is  thoroughly  dried  and  burned,  dropping  out  at  the  other 
end  in  the  form  of  clinker.  The  fuel  used  is  pulverized  ct^l,  which  is  ignited 
and  blown  into  the  kiln  at  one  end.  After  the  clinker  is  passed  through  the 
cooling  machines,  a  steel  conveyor  delivers  it  into  a  set  of  very  heavy  steel 
rolls,  where  it  is  reduced  to  the  size  of  rice.  Then  it  is  conveyed  to  the 
hoppers  which  feed  the  Griffin  mills,  by  which  it  is  ground  to  a  fine  powder. 

These  are  the  salient  features  of  the  manufacture.  A  cement  plant  is 
a  large  institution,  representing  a  great  outlay  of  capital  (it  is  said  that  the 
first  cost  of  a  plant  is  at  the  minimum  three  hundred  thousand  dollars), 
much  executive  aiblity,  and  a  large  supply  of  skilled  and  common  labor. 
When  it  is  recalled  that  Branch  county  now  has  four  of  these  plants  within' 
her  area,  all  built  within  the  last  ten  years,  it  is  seen  how  large  and  important 
has  been  the  contribution  of  this  industry  to  the  permanent  wealth  and  active 
resources  of  the  county.  According  to  the  state  reiwrt  for  1905  there  were 
only  thirteen  plants  in  operation  in  the  entire  state  of  Michigan,  the  total 
number  of  plants  being  seventeen.  Thus  Branch  county  has  at  least  a  fourth 
of  the  cement-producing  equipment  of  the  state  of  Michigan.  From  the  same 
report  the  total  daily  capacity  of  the  seventeen  plants  was  19,200  barrels,  and 
of  the  four  Branch  county  plants,  5,800,  which  is  more  than  a  fourth  of  the 
combined  cai>acity  of  Michigan  cement  industries.  The  total  number  of 
employes  in  these  four  industries  is  458,  taking  the  figures  of  the  factory 
inspector  in  1905. 

At  Eronson  village  is  the  cement  plant,  the  largest  manufacturing  in- 
dustry in  the  western  part  of  the  county.  Cement  was  first  manufactured 
at  these  works  in  1897,  and  the  capacity  has  been  increased  to  1,200  barrels 
a  day.     The  company  owns  about  five  hundred  acres  of  low,  wet  land  about 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  123 

the  works,  and  both  the  clay  and  the  mari  are  obtained  from  the  land.  The 
stvatiim  of  marl  is  found  three  feet  below  the  surface,  the  top  three  feet 
being  peat,  which  is  removed  by  dredging. 

The  Bronson  plant  was  first  operated  as  the  "  Bronson -Kalamazoo  Port- 
land Cement  Company,"  but  in  1905  it  was  made  a  part  of  the  Chanute  Ce- 
ment and  Clay  Product  Company,  the  Bronson  plant  being  known  as  the 
"  Brongon  Division"  of  the  same.  The  officers  in  igo6  are:  President, 
John  F.  Townsend,  Akron,  O. ;  vice-president  and  general  manager,  J,  R. 
Patterson,  of  Union  City ;  treasurer,  Henry  Robinson ;  secretary,  W.  E.. 
Wheeler;  Michigan  agent,  C.  H.  Powley,  Bronson. 

The  history  of  the  Coldwater  Portland  Cement  Co.,  which  was  organ- 
ized May  25,  1898,  and  of  its  successor,  the  Michigan  Portland  Cement  Co.. 
which  was  organized  June  30,  i8g8,  is  continued  in  the  Wolverine  Portland 
Cement  Company,  which  was  organized  early  in  1902,  with  a  capital  stock 
of  $1,000,000.  Tliis  group  of  companies  has  had  a  somewhat  varied  finan- 
cial history,  but  this  has  not  prevented  the  steady  production  of  cement  under 
the  Wolverine  brand.  The  first  company  planned,  the  Coldwater,  was  a 
relatively  modest  affair,  with  a  capital  stock  of  $300,000.  Soon  the  plans 
were  enlarged,  and  the  original  company  under  the  name  of  the  American 
Construction  Company  took  the  contract  of  preparing  the  plant,  turning  in 
what  it  had  done  to  the  larger  company,  the  Michigan  Portland  Cement 
Company,  which  issued  a  million  dollars  of  bonds,  covering  the  plant  and 
the  lands.  In  recapitalizing,  $100  in  six  per  cent  bonds  was  offered  with 
every  $100  of  stock  for  $100  cash.  When,  therefore,  in  the  fall  of  1901, 
interest  failed  to  l>e  paid  on  these  bonds,  foreclosure  proceedings  were  begun, 
and  as  a  result  of  the  conference  between  the  bondholders,  who  may  be 
taken  to  represent  the  subscribing  public,  and  the  other  creditors,  prominent 
among  which  was  the  Constniction  Company,  representing  the  promoters, 
the  present  company,  the  Wolverine  Portland  Cement  Company,  was  formed. 

The  Wolverine  Company  control  and  operate  both  the  plant  at  Quincy 
and  that  at  Coldwater.  The  "  Wolverine  "  brand  of  cement  has  been  on 
the  market  since  1898,  when  the  Coldwater  plant  was  completed,  and  the 
"  Eclipse  "  brand  since  1900,  when  the  plant  at  Quincy  was  put  in  operation. 

The  present  officers  of  the  Wolverine  Portland  Cement  Company  are : 
L.  M.  Wing,  of  Coldwater,  president;  Frank  M.  Rudd,  of  Bronson,  Mich., 
vice-president;  and  E.  R.  Root,  Coldwater,  secretary  and  treasurer. 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 


CHAPTER  XVH. 
BRANCH  COUNTY  BANKS  AND  FINANCE. 

The  history  of  hanking  in  Branch  county  goes  back  to  the  days  of 
"  wild-cat "  currency  and  reckless  speculation,  which  set  in  shortly  after 
Michigan  was  admitted  to  statehood.  The  old  Coldwater  Bank  began  its 
existence  in  December,  1837,  when  it  was  organized  under  the  provisions  of 
an  act  of  the  legislature  passed  in  the  preceding  March.  Some  of  the  most 
prominent  men  of  that  day  were  directly  concerned  in  its  organization,  the 
stockholders  being  Hanchett  &  Holbrook,  William  A.  Kent,  L.  D.  &  P,  H. 
Crippen,  James  H.  Hanchett,  Robert  Baker,  R.  J.  Champion,  William  Rey- 
nolds, H,  Cowles,  Ed  Sloan,  B.  Crippen,  Lewis  Goddard  of  Detroit,  John  J. 
Curtis,  Loren  Marsh,  John  Conley,  Martin  Olds,  Harvey  Warner,  Lot  Whit- 
comb,  J.  S.  Ware,  Enoch  Jones,  L  Taylor  and  E.  G.  Fuller. 

The  bank  was  opened  in  a  little  one-story  building  on  the  north  side  of 
Chicago  street,  east  of  Monroe,  where  Sloman's  and  Flandermeyer's  stores 
"  are  located.  L.  D.  Crippen  was  the  first  president.  The  directing  spirits 
of  the  institiition,  however,  were  two  men  from  outside  the  county,  Goddard 
and  Ware,  whose  business  it  was  to  organize  banks  and  to  manipulate  the 
clever  financial  schemes  of  that  day.  Their  theories  as  to  banking  and 
finance  were  so  elaborate,  yet  so  plausible,  that  the  other  stockholders  and 
directors  submissively  put  away  practical  opinions  and  every-day  business 
methods  and  followed  their  lead  almost  without  question.  The  bills  of  the 
bank  were  issued  to  the  amount  allowed  by  law,  with  no  specie  in  the  vault 
to  redeem  them.  The  two  promoters  soon  after  carried  away  with  tiiem 
about  fifty  thousand  dollars  of  these  bills  for  the  purpose  of  turning  them 
into  cash  and,  as  they  said,  "  creating  specie."  They  did  dispose  of  most 
of  the  bills,  but  they  never  returned  with  the  proceeds  to  Coldwater,  and 
the  honest  pioneer  stockholders  who  remained  behind  were  left  to  pay  the 
incoming  bills  as  best  they  could.  The  Crippens  struggled  hard  to  main- 
tain the  integrity  of  the  institution,  becoming  personally  responsible  to  the 
amount  of  twenty  thousand  dollars,  but  without  avail,  for  the  bank  failed 
utterly  within  a  year  after  it  was  founded. 

Some  time  after  this  experience  in  "  wild-cat "  finance,  Lorenzo  D. 
Crippen  and  Clinton  B.  Fisk  ooened  the  "  Exchange  Bank  of  Crippen  and 
Fisk,"  ITiis  bank,  though  without  a  hint  of  the  methods  of  Its  predecessor, 
had  a  very  difficult  career,  for  banking  and  finance  were  in  a  state  of  terrible 
confusion  owing  to  the  lack  of  uniformity  and  inadequacy  of  the  laws,  both 
state  and  national,  that  regulated  such  matters.  Crippen  and  Fisk  suspended 
payment  in  1857,  during  the  financial  panic  of  that  year,  but  the  proprietors 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  125 

of  the  Exchange  Bank  settled  with  all  their  creditors  in  full  and  no  stigma 
attached  to  their  failure.  The  following  partnerships  successively  operated 
the  Exchange  Bank  after  the  suspension:  Clinton  B.  Fisk  and  Henry  C. 
Lewis;  H.  C,  Lewis,  Alonzo  F.  Bidwell,  and  I.  G.  Miles;  Lewis  and  (George 
A.)  Kellogg:  Lewis  and  (George)  Starr;  Edwin  R,  Clarke  and  Starr;  and 
David  B.   Dennis  and   Starr. 

Coldwater  National  Bank. 

Dennis  and  Starr  were  succeeded  by  the  Coldwater  National  Bank, 
which  with  over  forty  years  of  continuous  financial  operation,  not  to  men- 
tion its  antecedents,  is  the  oldest  banking  house  in  Branch  county.  It  was 
organized  May  30,  1865,  with  a  capital  stock  of  $100,000.  The  first  officers 
and  directors  were:  H.  C.  Lewis,  president;  D'.  B.  Dennis,  vice-president; 
George  Starr,  cashier,  who  had  begun  with  the  Exchange  Bank  in  1856. 
The  directors  were :  H.  C.  Lewis,  D.  B.  Dennis,  George  Starr,  Artemus 
Allen.  Charles  Upson,  C.  B.  Jones,  A.  Waterman,  David  Thompson,  D.  R. 
Cooley,  C.  G.  Luce, 

The  Coldwater  National  Bank  now  has  a  capital  and  surplus  of  $135,000. 
Its  present  officers  and  directors  are:  L.  M.  Wing,  president:  Z.  G.  Osborn, 
vice-president;  H.  R.  Saunders,  cashier.  Directors,  Louis  Sloman,  H.  R. 
Saunders,  K.  R.  Williams,  F.  W.  Moore,  John  T.  Starr,  Z.  G.  Osborn, 
L.  M.  Wing. 

Southern  Michigan  National  Bank. 

The  Southern  Michigan  National  Bank  of  Coldwater  has  a  history  of 
nearly  thirty-five  years  of  continuous  and  successful  activity.  A  bank,  when 
prosperous,  comes  to  be  regarded  by  the  people  generally  as  an  "  institution" 
and  the  personal  character  behind  it  seldom  comes  to  light.  None  the  less 
the  strength  of  the  institution  depends  on  the  directors  and  officers  who  control 
its  affairs,  -and  the  confidence  of  tlie  people  in  the  bank  is  only  another  way 
of  stating  the  reliability  of  the  men  responsible  for  its  financial  management. 
Many  well  known  men  of  Branch  county  have  Ijeen  identified  with  the  South- 
ern Michigan  National  Bank,  and  it  is  also  noteworthy  that  some  of  the 
original  stockholders  and  officials  are  still  connected  with  the  active  control. 

The  names  of  the  original  stockholders  are:  Caleb  D.  Randall.  Juhu3 
S.  Barber,  Cyrus  G.  Luce,  Henry  Safford,  Lester  E.  Rose,  Edwin  R.  Clarke, 
John  O.  Pelton.  David  C.  Powers.  Luther  F.  Hale,  Charles  A.  Spaulding, 
Robert  F.  Mockridge,  Simon  B.  Kitchel,  Alonzo  Waterman,  Thomas  W. 
Dickinson.  Hibbard>.  Jones,  Olivia  Safford,  Isaac  Mains,  Emeline  Barber, 
Thomas  Smith.  Noah  P.  Loveridge.  Robert  Reade,  Daniel  E.  Dyer.  D.  C. 
Smith,  J.  Sterling  Smith,  Lois  Smith.  Mary  Rodman,  Orlando  Wilder. 

The  first  board  of  directors  were:  Henry  Safford,  E.  R.  Ciarke,  J.  S. 
Barber,  C.  D.  Randall.  L.  F.  Hale,  D.  C.  Powers,  C.  G.  Luce.  The  present 
directors  are  L.  E.  Rose,  J.  S,  Barber,  E.  G.  Luce,  R.  E.  Clarke,  M.  D.  Camp- 
bell, A.  S.  Upson. 

The  first  executive  officers  are:     C  D.  Randall,  president;  C.  G.  Luce, 


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126  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

vice-president:  Lester  E.  Rose,  cashier:  A.  Sidney  Upson,  teller  and  book- 
keeper. On  the  resignation  of  Mr.  Randa!!,  Mr.  Rose  became  president,  and 
the  recent  death  of  C.  G.  Luce  necessitated  the  only  other  change  that  has 
occurred  since  the  bank  began  business.  The  officers  at  present  are :  L.  E. 
Rose,  president ;  J.  S.  Barber,  vice-president ;  A.  S.  Upson,  cashier. 

In  February,  1872,  the  Southern  Michigan  National  Bank  was  opened 
for  business  in  the  Southern  Michigan  Hotel  block,  but  since  the  fall  of  the 
same  year  has  been  located  in  the  building  erected  by  the  banking  associa- 
tion at  the  southeast  corner  of  Chicago  and  Monroe  streets.  The  capital 
stock  is  $165,000,  and  the  surplus  and  undivided  profits  are  $145,000. 

The  Branch   County  Savings  Bank. 

The  Branch  County  Savings  Bank  at  Coldwater  was  organized  Decem- 
ber 9,  1890,  with  the  following  officers:  President,  B.  S.  Spofford;  first 
vice-president,  F.  L.  Burdick;  second  vice-president,  B.  R.  Moore;  cashier, 
C.  T.  Gilbert;  directors,  B.  S.  Spofford.  B.  R.  Moore,  N.  A.  Reynolds,  C.  T. 
Gillwrt,  W.  S.  VanBlarcum,  H.  J.  Woodward,  F.  L.  Burdick,  G.  W.  Van- 
Aken,  R.  G.  Chandler.  The  bank  proved  a  success  from  its  inception,  its 
savings  feature  being  particiilarly  attractive  to  the  small  depositor — an  im- 
portant branch  of  the  banking  business  too  often  overlooked  by  many  banks. 
A  general  banking  business  is  conducted  in  all  of  its  branches  and  the  out- 
side connections  of  the  Branch  County  Savings  Bank  are  extensive.  The 
present  officers  of  the  bank  are  B.  S,  Spofford,  president;  F.  L.  Burdick, 
vice-president;  M.  W.  Wimer,  cashier.  The  directors  are  B.  S.  Spofford, 
A.  Milnes,  j .  W.  McCausey,  F.  L.  Burdick,,  S.  H.  Clizbe,  N.  Baldwin,  G.  W. 
VanAken,  N.  A.  Reynolds,  Harry  P.  Woodward.  The  capital  and  surplus 
are  $65,000. 

Union  City  National  Bank. 

The  building  of  the  railroad  through  Union  City  was,  as  told  on  other 
pages,  a  powerful  impetus  to  business  and  growth  of  all  kinds.  Further 
proof  of  the  statement  is  found  in  the  fact  that  the  village's  oldest  bank  was 
established  about  that  time.  The  Union  City  National  Bank  was  organized 
under  a  charter,  May  17,  1871,  with  the  following  officers:  President, 
David  R.  Coolev ;  vice-president.  Dr.  Wm.  P.  Hurd ;  cashier,  Ira  W.  Nash ; 
directors,  S.  P.  'WiiHams,  I,  W.  Clark,  Ezra  Bostwick,  J.  B.  Tucker,  H.  H. 
Hitchcock.  Mr.  Cooley  was  president  for  three  years  when  he  was  succeeded 
by  Dr.  W.  P.  Hurd,  who  filled  the  position  in  a  satisfactory  manner  until 
his  death  in  1881.  Mr.  Ezra  Bostwick  succeeded  to  the  office  and  was 
president  until  his  death  in  1895.  Mr.  J.  W.  McCausey,  who  had  been 
cashier  of  the  institution  since  1883,  was  then  elected  president,  a  position 
which  he  still  fills.  The  bank  is  situated  in  commodious  quarters  of  its  own 
at  the  comer  of  Ellen  street  and  Broadway,  where  steel  vaults  and  safes  of 
modern  construction  afford  safety  to  the  funds  of  the  institution.  A  general 
banking  business  is  done,  and  that  the  bank  possesses  fully  the  confidence  of 
the  public  is   evidenced  by   the   large  volume  of  business  transacted.     The 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  12T 

present  ofikers  are  as  follows:  President,  J.  W.  McCausey;  vice-president, 
Isaac  Tower;  cashier,  J.  S.  Nesbitt;  teller,  L.  F.  Holcomb;  directors,  J.  W. 
McCausey,  Isaac  Tower,  Mrs.  C.  E.  Hurd,  M.  F.  Biiell,'  Henry  Seymour, 
Warren  Baker,  W.  H.  Tower, 

Farmers  National  Bank  of  Union  City. 

The  Farmers  National  Bank  was  incorporated  October  4,  1877,  with 
the  following  officers:  Tliomas  B.  Buell,  president;  H.  F.  Ewers,  vice- 
president;  H.  T.  Carpenter,  cashier;  T.  B.  Bnell,  R.  F.  Watkins,  Rnfus 
Osborn,  H.  F.  Ewers,  H.  T.  Carpenter,  D.  R.  Cooley,  H.  L.  Bisbee,  directors. 
Thomas  B.  Bueli  continued  as  president  until  his  death  in  1900,  when  he 
was  succeeded  by  his  son  D.  D.  Buell.  Ever  since  its  organization  the  bank 
has  been  under  the  management  of  its  cashier,  H.  T.  Carpenter,  whose  long 
record  in  the  same  position  is  not  excelled  in  the  history  of  Branch  county 
banking.  The  present  officfers  are :  D.  D.  Buell,  president ;  J.  P.  Fox,  vice- 
president;  H.  T.  Carpenter,  cashier.  According  to  one  of  its  latest  state- 
ments, the  Farmers  National  has  a  capital  stock  of  $50,000,  surplus  and 
undivided  profits  of  nearly  $18,000,  and  deposits  of  nearly  $200,000. 

First  National  Bank  of  Quincy. 

In  April,  1877,  the  banking  house  of  Lee  and  Hannan  was  estabHshed 
in  Quincy.  Four  years  later,  in  1881,  Mr.  Charles  R.  Hannan  organized 
the  First  Notional  Bank  of  Quincy,  which  now,  at  the  close  of  its  twenty-' 
fifth  year,  is  the  oldest  bank  of  Quincy  and  one  of  the  most  successful  in  the 
county.  Its  management  has  been  solid  and  conservative  throughout,  and 
it  has  the  record  of  never  having  paid  a  cent  of  interest  on  deposits.  Its 
deposits  in  April,  1906,  were  nearly  one  hundred  thousand  dollars. 

Associated  with  Mr.  Hannan  in  the  establishment  of  this  bank  were 
the  first  president,  B.  F.  Wheat;  the  vice-president,  John  H,  Jones,  while 
Mr.  Hannan  took  the  post  of  cashier.  One  instance  of  the  solidity  of  the 
bank  is  to  be  found  in  the  length  of  service  of  the  men  now  officers.  Mr. 
C.  H.  Winchester,  the  president,  has  been  with  the  bank  about  fifteen  years, 
following  Mr.  Wheat ;  the  vice-president,  E.  B.  Church,  has  a  record  of 
twenty  years  with  the  institution,  while  Mr.  C.  L,  Truesdell,  the  cashier, 
has  stood  regularly  at  his  window  for  twenty-three  years. 

Quincy  State  Bank. 

The  Quincy  State  Bank  was  incorporated  January  20,  1899.  With 
the  exception  of  the  office  of  vice-president,  which  for  the  first  three  years 
was  held  by  H.  W.  Whitmore,  the  principal  officers  and  the  directors  have 
remained  the  same  to  the  present  time.  They  are:  F.  A.  Roethlisberger, 
president;  N.  H.  Andrus,  vice-president;  M.  S.  Segur,  cashier;  directors, 
S.  M.  Golden,  N,  H.  Andrus,  M.  S.  Segur,  Harvey  Chase,  F.  A.  Roethlis- 
berger. Charles  Harphan  was  assistant  cashier  two  years,  L.  T,  Etheridge 
for  one  year,  and  Pearl  Power  now  holds  that  position. 


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138  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

Shenvood. 

The  Farmers'  and  Merchants'  Bank  at  Sherwood  was  established  in 
1883.  It  is  capitalized  at  $10,000.  The  president  is  Henry  Seymour  anc! 
the  cashier  George  H.  Seynronr,  who  are  the  owners  of  the  institution. 
Sketches  of  these  business  men  will  be  found  elsewhere  in  the  volume. 

Bronson  Banks. 

The  L.  Rudd  &  Son  private  banking-  business  was  begun  in  1883. 
Laurendus  Rudd,  the  founder,  who  was  Ixirn  in  New  York  in  1815,  and  died 
in  Bronson,  December  27,  1884,  came  to  Bronson  in  1854  and  was  foremost 
in  business  affairs  until  his  death.  His  was  the  first  banking  house  in  the 
village.  The  firm  aie  now  the  only  bankers  in  the  county  whoi  are  mem- 
bers of  the  American  Banking  Association.  F.  M.  Rudd,  the  son,  now  car- 
ries on  the  principal  interests  in  succession  to  his  father  and  has  also  enlarged 
the  scope  of  his  business  efforts. 

The  Exchange  Bank,  also  a  private  bank,  was  established  in  1897,  the 
original  firm  name  being  Coward  &  Monroe  Brothers.  In  1902  Wallace 
Monroe  sold  his  interest,  and  the  firm  became  Coward  &  Monroe.  Richard 
Coward  and  William  Monroe  are  now  the  proprietors  of  this  bank,  which  has 
a  capital  of  $50,000  and  large  deposits  and  is  in  a  substantial  condition.  Mr. 
Coward,  who  is  of  English  birth,  has  lived  in  Branch  county  since  1865. 

Farmers'  Mutu.\l  Insurance  Company. 

One  of  the  oldest  and  best  known  financial  institutions  of  Branch  county 
is  the  Farmers  Mutual  Insurance  Company  of  Branch  County,  which  has 
had  a  continuous  and  successful  existence  since  the  date  of  its  founding, 
January  21,  1863.  The  mutual  plan  has  always  been  strictly  adhered  to, 
and  the  insurance  reports  issued  from  the  state  have  always  given  the  com- 
pany favorable  mention,  which  is  substantiated  in  the  sworn  statements  of 
business.  The  founders  of  the  company  are  named  in  the  first  official  list, 
namely:  Philo  Porter,  president;  John  S.  Strong,  secretary:  and  Asahel 
Brown,  Stuart  Davis,  Moses  V.  Calkins,  George  W.  VanAken,  E.  W.  Pliet- 
tiplace,  directors. 

The  company  has  written  policies  for  more  than  forty  years.  Its  im- 
portance as  an  individual  financial  institution  is  shown  in  the  erection,  during 
the  year  of  this  writing,  1906,  of  a  brick  building  on  Division  street  opposite 
the  court  house,  which  will  be  devoted  to  business  offices  for  the  company. 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 


CHAPTER  XVin. 
RAILROADS,   TRANSPORTATION   AND  COMMUNICATION. 

The  laying-  out  of  the  Chicago  Road  and  the  operation  of  the  line  of 
stages  from  Detroit  to  Chicago  had  a  tremendous  importance  in  the  devel- 
opment of  southern  Michigan.  But  the  time  came  when  the  last  coach  rum- 
bled along  this  thoroughfare,  and  the  stage-coach  era  passed  on  beyond  the 
Mississippi  river.  Following  it,  as  one  phase  of  progress  follows  another, 
came  the  railroad  period.  The  very  fact  that  the  transition  from  one  to  the 
other  was  a  gradual  process,  covering  some  years,  partly  ohscured  the  sig- 
nificance of  the  event  even  to  its  actual  beholders,  while  to  people  who  have 
never  lived  out  of  hearing  of  the  locomotive  whistle,  imagination  affords  a 
dim  idea  of  the  epoch  when  the  stage  coach  and  the  Conestoga  wagon  were 
the  onl)'  means  of  transportation. 

Railroad  building  was  extended  westward  in  the  wake  of  the  great 
emigration  movement  of  the  thirties  and  forties.  Although  the  first  rail- 
road in  the  United  States  was  not  built  until  the  decade  of  the  twenties,  each 
year  thereafter  increased  the  railroad  mileage  by  hundreds  and  then  by 
thousands  of  miles.  Branch  county  was  fortunate  in  being  on  the  route 
of  westward  extension  which  finally  Ixtund  the  east  and  the  west  by  trunk 
lines,  and  in  1850  was  traversed  by  one  of  these  lines  and  twenty  years  later 
by  a  second. 

It  was  not  until  1S37  '^'''^t  ^^^  Michigan  pioneer  could  make  any  part 
of  his  journey  in  this  state  by  rail.  The  Erie  and  Kalamazoo  Railroad,  the 
oldest  of  the  original  companies  which  are  now  embraced  under  the  name 
of  the  Lake  Shore  and  Michigan  Southern,  was  incorporated  in  1833,  was 
built  between  Toledo  and  Adrian,  a  distance  of  thirty-three  miies,  and  opened 
for  traffic  in  1837.  The  motive  power  was  furnished  by  horses  until  a  loco- 
motive could  be  obtained.  This  road  had  many  difficulties,  and  its  owners 
finally,  in  August,  1849,  leased  it  to  the  Michigan  Southern. 

In  1837  the  then  new  state  of  Michigan  launched  out  in  a  grand  scheme 
of  internal  improvements,  providing  for  a  loan  of  five  million  dollars  (an 
enormous  sum  'at  that  time)  for  the  improvement  of  rivers,  ccwistroction  of 
canals,  and  for  three  railroads — a  Southern,  a  Central  and  a  Northern  Rail- 
road. The  Southern  Railroad,  it  should  be  noticed,  was  fJanned  to  start 
at  Monroe,  on  Lake  Erie,  traverse  the  southern  tier  of  counties,  and  ter- 
minate at  St.  Joseph  on  Lake  Michigan.  The  Central  was  to  cross  the  state 
and  terminate  on  Lake  Michigan  at  a  point  further  north.  At  the  time  these 
roads  were  planned,  Chicago  was  little  more  tlian  a  trading  post,  but  long 
before  either  of  them  was  completed  it  became  obvious  that  the  value  of  each 


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130;  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

road  depended  on  having  its  western  terminus  in  Chicago.  The  Central,  af- 
ter the  state  relinquished  its  control,  was  constructed  rapidly  and  across  the 
prescribed  route  of  the  Southern  through  New  Buffalo  and  along  the  south- 
ern shore  of  Lake  Michigan,  its  arrival  in  Chicago  anticipating  that  of  the 
Southern  by  several  months. 

In  the  meantime  the  state  was  proceeding  with  the  construction  of  the 
Southern  Railroad  also.  The  road  was  opened  from  Monroe  to  Petersburg, 
eighteen  miles,  in  1839,  to  Adrian  in  1840,  to  Hudson  in  1843,  and  to  Hills- 
dale in  1843,  i"  ^"  ^  distance  of  66  miles.  That  was  all  of  the  Southern 
Railroad  built  by  the  state.  Michigan's  experience  in  the  construction  of 
great  internal  improvements  was  unfortunate,  and  in  less  than  ten  years  it 
seemed  the  part  of  wisdom  to  turn  over  such  enterprises  to  private  capital. 
In  1846,  accordingly,  the  state  sold  its  Southern  road  to  a  company  for  five 
hundred  thousand  dollars,  to  be  paid  in  ten  equal  annual  installments. 

Tliis  was  the  status  of  the  railroad  question  at  the  time  when  we  may 
begin  to  view  it  from  the  standpoint  of  the  people  of  Branch  county. 
Despite  the  constant  agitation  on  the  part  of  the  citizens,  the  mass  meet- 
ings, the  memorials  to  the  legislature,  the  western  terminus  of  the  railroad 
remained  at  Hillsdale  for  nearly  seven  years.  The  inhabitant  of  Coldwater 
who  wished  to  go  to  Detroit  must  make  the  first  twenty-two  miles  of  the 
journey  by  stage,  and  the  trip  was  not  at  all  tempting  to  one  bent  on  a  holiday 
excursion.  The  railroad  question  was  vital.  Hardly  an  issue  of  the  Cold- 
water  Sentinel  during  the  late  forties  did  not  contain  an  editorial  of  protest 
against  the  delay.  The  progress  of  negotiations  was  followed  in  great  detail, 
and  at  a  time  when  neivspapers  gave  scant  attention  to  matters  of  local  inter- 
est this  fact  is  significant  of  the  importance  that  marked  the  building  of  the 
railroad  in  contrast  with  all  other  affairs. 

The  Telegraph, 
The  villages  of  Branch  county  were  placed  in  communication  with  the 
world  by  means  of  the  telegraph  a  year  before  the  railroad  came.  In  1S45 
the  first  commercial  use  was  made  of  the  telegraph.  Four  years  later  its 
wire  threads  were  being  carried  across  the  continent,  enabling  the  people  of 
Coldwater  to  know  what  had  occurred  in  New  York  two  hours  before.  "  On 
Tuesday,  Nov.  6,  1849,  the  office  of  the  Southern  Michigan  Telegraph  line 
in  this  viliage  was  put  in  operation,"  But  while  marking  this  as  an  im- 
portant day  in  the  history  of  Coldwater,  the  editor  of  the  Sentinel  in  the 
same  issue  sagely  comments  that,  despite  material  inventions  and  improve- 
ments, the  disposition  of  men  remains  about  the  same.  "  We  have  wit- 
nessed," he  savs,  "  the  anxiety  of  our  citizens  when  the  lumbering  stage 
coach  was  the  "only  medium  by  which  news  was  conveyed.  We  saw  no  less 
anxiety  when  the  stage  coach  gave  place,  in  part,  to  the  locomotive  as  it 
rolled  along  its  iron  track.  An  increase  of  speed  had  increased  their  expec- 
tations. And  now,  when  they  can  talk  by  lightning,  send  their  communica- 
tions and  receive  answers  in  less  than  no  time,  they  are  more  dissatisfied 
than  ever.     There  was  more  anxiety  depicted  on   the  countenances  of  the 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  131 

crowd  in  waiting  Tuesday  evening  and  Wednesday,  whik  the  election  re- 
turns were  coming  in,  than  we  ever  saw  manifested  by  a  postoffice  full  of 
politicians  when  they  had  waited  patiently  a  week  or  ten  days  without  any 
intelligence.  Lightning  was  too  slow,  and  we  were  convinced  that  the  more 
me*n  have,  the  more  they  want." 

The   First   Railroad. 

But  now  the  attention  of  the  press  and  the  people  became  concentrated 
on  the  railroad  situation.  The  rivalry  between  tbe  Michigan  Southern  and 
the  Michigan  Centra!  was  by  this  time  intense,  and  each  company  was  using 
all  the  means  in  its  power  to  prevent  the  other  from  reaching  Chicago.  As 
already  mentioned,  the  Michigan  Central  had  been  diverted  southward  from 
its  original  course.  The  Southern  people  were  fighting  in  the  legislature 
for  the  privilege  likewise  of  diverging  from  the  straight  course  across  the 
southern  tier  of  counties  and  building  a  large  part  of  their  line  across  north- 
ern Indiana.  The  interest  in  this  matter  was  not  confined  to  the  legislative 
halls  and  railroad  circles.  In  March,  1850,  a  mass  meeting  of  citizens  was 
held  in  the  Branch  county  court  house,  long  series  of  preambles  and  reso- 
lutions were  adopted,  of  which  the  main  tenor  was  a  protest  against  the 
monopoly  of  the  Michigan  Central  and  an  emphasizing  of  the  uselessness 
of  constructing  the  Michigan  Southern  to  a  terminus  within  the  state  of 
Michigan  instead  of  to  Chicago. 

The  agitation  here  and  elsewhere  bore  fruit.  Greided  to  action  by  an 
aroused  constituency,  the  legislature  in  the  closing  days  of  its  session  of 
1849-50  passed  a  bill,  two  important  features  of  which  were  that  the  South- 
em  road  should  be  extended  from  Hillsdale  to  Coldwater  by  the  fall  of  1851, 
and  requiring  the  road  to  strike  the  St.  Joseph  river  before  it  should  be 
diverted  from  the  state.  The  line  was  to  be  equipped  with  a  heavy  T-rail 
instead  of  the  strap  rail,  "  so  that  trains  may  whiz  along  at  thirty  miles  an 
hour,"  to  quote  again  from  the  Sentinel. 

The  railroad  now  became  an  immediate  and  definite  prospect  for  Branch 
county.  By  the  latter  part  of  October,  1S50,  trains  were  running  to  Jones- 
ville,  with  the  grading  between  Coldwater  and  Jonesville  nearly  ready  for 
the  track.  On  December  6.  1850.  the  eager  readers  of  the  Sentinel  saw  this 
item :  "  We  saw  the  locomotive  come  snorting  through  Quincy  on  Monday 
last,  with  a  load  of  iron ;  a  somewhat  unusual  sight,  but  with  all  the  noise 
and  confusion,  an  agreeable  one." 

The  next  issue  contained  the  climax  of  the  story.  '■  What  our  citizens 
have  looked  eagerly  for  during  the  last  twelve  years  is  at  last  accomplished, 
and  the  Michigan  Southern  is  finally  completed  to  Coldwater.  For  the  first 
time,  on  Tuesday  (December  10,  1850),  the  iron  hqrse  made  .his  appearance 
in  this  village.  A  freight  train  arrived  at  noon  and  commenced  taking  on  a 
load  of  flour  at  the  depot.  About  4:15  a  large  number  of  our  expectant 
citizens  witnessed  the  arrival  of  a  passenger  train  from  the  east."  That 
was  a. red  letter  day  in  the  history  of  Coldwater.  In  the  evening-a  ball  was 
held  at  the  old  Franklin  House  in  honor  of  the  event,  and  on  the  following 


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J33  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

Friday,  when  a  train  load  of  visitors  from  Adrian,  Toledo  and  other  points 
along  the  line  came  to  the  Coldwater  terminus,  there  was  a  second  cele- 
bration and  rejoicing,  all  the  homes  in  the  viilage  were  open  to  entertain 
the  strangers,  and  there  was  another  dance  in  the  evening.  These  social 
gi  a  tula  t  ions,  however,  were  mere  incidental  manifestations  of  the  intro- 
duction of  an  epoch  which  closed  the  pioneer  era  of  Branch  county. 

Constmction  work  did  not  stop  at  CoMwater.  By  the  middle  of  Feb- 
niary,  1851,  track  had  been  laid  to  the  county  line,  thus  giving  Bronson 
communication  by  rail,  and  on  March  13th  a  train  ran  through  to  Sturgis. 
A  year  later,  in  March,  1S52,  the  road  reached  Chicago,  and  the  distance 
of  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles  between  Toledo  and  Chicago  was  open  to 
traffic  without  the  use  of  the  stage  for  any  portion  of  the  way. 

Air  Line  Railroad. 

The  Air  Line  branch  of  the  Michigan  Central,  which  enters  the  county 
at  Union  City  and  crosses  the  county  diagonally  out  through  Sherwood 
township,  was  projected  almost  entirely  by  local  capital  and  enterprise,  the 
corporate  name  being  the  Michigan  Air  Line  Railroad  Com[mny.  The  peo- 
ple of  the  counties  of  Cass,  St.  Joseph,  Calhoun,  Branch  and  Jackson  were 
the  ones  most  vitally  interested.  In  the  latter  part  of  the  sixties  the  town- 
ships of  Union  and  Sherwood  were  thoroughly  canvassed  for  contributions 
to  the  enterprise,  the  promoters  sending  a  man  of  address  and  eloquence 
all  over  this  section  to  hold  meetings  and  to  use  personal  suasion  in  the 
interest  of  the  project.  The  following  item  from  the  first  copy  of  the  Union 
City  Independent,  in  October,  1867,  indicates  how  local  interest  and  finan- 
cial support  were  worked  up  for  this  railroad. 

"  We  understand  that  Dr.  H.  F.  Ewers  and  E.  Perry,  Esq.,  are  can- 
vassing the  townships  of  Union  and  Sherwood  for  stock  subscriptions  and 
right  of  way  for  the  railroad,  and  that  thus  far  they  have  met  with  good 
success.  Nearly  or  quite  enoug'h  stock  has  been  taken  east  of  Jackson  to 
prepare  the  road-bed  for  the  iron,  and  we  understand  that  on  that  portion 
of  the  rotite,  the  contracts  are  to  be  let  this  fall." 

Jackson  county  subscribed  nearly  two  hundred  thousand .  dollars  to  the 
undertaking,  and  the  principal  officers  of  the  original  organization  were 
citizens  of  Jackson.  The  line  was  opened  to  travel  from  Jackson  to  Homer 
in  the  summer  of  1870,  to  Three  Rivers  in  the  autumn  of  the  same  year,  and 
was  completed  to  Niles  in  February,  1S71.  Almost  coincident  with  the 
completion  of  the  road  it  was  leased  to  the  Michigan  Central  Railroad  Com- 
pany, and  soon  became  the  property  of  that  company.  The  Air  Line  has 
been  of  special  value  in  upbuilding  Union  City  and  was  the  foundation  of 
the  village  of  Sherwood. 

Other  Railroads. 

The  Fort  Wayne,  Jackson  and  Saginaw  Railroad,  which  crosses  the 
southeast  corner  of  California  township,  was  completed  and  opened  for 
traffic  from  Jackstin  to  Angola,  Indiana,  in  January,  ig^o,  about  the  same 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  133 

time  the  Michigan  Air  Line  was  constructed  across  the  northwest  corner 
of  the  county. 

The  futility  of  forecast  even  in  such  a  substantial  matter  as  railroad 
building'  is  well  illustrated  in  the  Branch  County  Atlas  published  in  1872. 
With  this  as  his  only  guide  we  mJ^it  conceive  of  a  trrtveler  planning-  to  take 
train  at  California  postotfice  and  riding  thence  north  through  Coldwater  and 
Girard  and  leaving  the  county  about  the  center  of  the  north  boundary.  For 
this  is  the  designated  route  of  the  Mansfield,  Coldwater  and  Lake  Michigan 
Railroad,  over  which,  unfortunately,  no  train  of  cars  ever  ran  through 
Branch  county.  None  the  less,  the  map  makers  were  not  open  to  censure 
on  that  account,  for  they  merely  indicated  the  line  which  it  was  confident!;' 
believed  at  the  time  would  soon  be  in  operation,  and  which  was  even  graded 
and  ready  in  some  portions  for  the  laying  of  the  iron.  And  now,  as  one 
unacquainted  with  this  chapter  of  Branch  county  history  rides  over  the 
county,  he  would  be  puzzled  in  places  to  account  for  the  grass-grown  cuts 
and  ridges  which  are  a!!  that  remain  of  the  ambitious  attempt. 

The  Mansfield,  Coldwater  and  Lake  Michigan  Railroad  was  largely  a 
ColdAvater  project.  The  report  of  the  state  railroad  commission  for  Decem- 
ber, 1872,  gave  among  the  list  of  officers  of  the  corporation  the  names  of 
H.  C.  Lewis  as  vice  president  (who  soon  after  became  president),  David 
B.  Dennis,  treasurer;  Justin  Lawyer,  assistant  secretary-,  and  F.  V.  Smith, 
register  of  transfers,  ail  of  Coldwater,  and  besides  these  the  late  Gen.  J.  G. 
Parkhurst  was  a  director.  It  was  planned  to  build  this  road  from  Mans- 
field, Ohio,  to  Allegan,  Michigaii.  In  1875  eleven  and  a  half  miles  were  in 
operation  from  Allegan  to  Monteith,  and  the  official  railroad  map  of  1875 
shows  it  as  a  stump  line  projecting  east  of  Monteith  a  few  miles  and  under 
lease  for  oi>eration  purposes  by  the  Grand  Rapids  and  Indiana.  August  28, 
1877.  t^^^  road  was  sold  under  foreclosure  of  mortgage,  the  name  then 
changing  to  the  Allegan  and  Southeastern  R.  R.  Co.  Its  subsequent  historj' 
is  not  pertinent  to  present  consideration. 

Contemporaneous  in  origin  and  perhaps  connected  in  other  ways  with 
the  above  enterprise,  was  the  Marshall  and  Coldwater  Railroad.  This  road 
was  projected  to  run  from  Coldwater  to  Elm  Hail  in  Gratiot  county,  and  a 
map  of  the  time  indicates  its  line  as  parallel  to  the  Mansfield  road  as  far  as 
Girard  village^  whence  it  goes  directly  north  towards  Marshall.  "  That  part 
of  the  line  from  Coldwater  to  the  Peninsular  Railroad,  a  distance  of  forty 
miles,  was.  January  T.  1873.  substantially  graded,  bridged  and  tied."  Such 
was  the  railroad  commissioner's  report,  but  no  track  was  ever  laid,  and  the 
name  and  record  of  the  corporation  disappear  from  the  reports  after  1873. 
Neariy  all  the  officials  named  were  citizens  of  Marshall. 

It  is  within  the  province  of  this  history  to  record  the  status  of  electric 
lines  in  the  county.  About  three  years  ago  the  Toledo  and  Michigan  Elec- 
tric Railroad  was  "  in  course  of  construction "  through  the  county,  the 
designated  termini  being  Toledo  and  Elkhart.  Along  the  highway  between 
Coldwater  and  Quincy   for  nearly  the  entire  distance  can  now  be  seen  the 


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134  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

grade  that  was  made  for  this  road.  But  so  far  this  construction  is  for 
nothing,  although  it  is  expected  that  a  new  corporation  will  utilize  the  grade: 

Furthermore,  at  the  time  of  this  writing,  a  company  is  in  the  field 
acquiring  right  of  way  and  other  concessions  along  the  route  of  the  old  Cold- 
water  and  Mansfield  route  from  Coldwater  to  Battle  Creek,  with  the  inten- 
tion of  constmcting  an  electric  line  that  will  cross  the  county  at  right  angles 
to  the  steam  roads  and  furnish  much-needed  transportation  between  por- 
tions of  the  county  that  are  now  practically  isolated. 

It  remans  for  a  later  historian  to  describe  the  improvements  which 
these  proposed  electric  lines  will  accomplish.  No  doubt  many  things  that 
are  now  novel  or  tentative  will  be  obsolete  or  thoroughly  founded  twentyr 
five  years  from  now. 

Postal  Service. 

One  of  the  first  improvements  soug'ht  after  actual  home  and  shelter  and 
means  of  subsistence  were  provided  was  a  postal  service,  such  as  all  the 
settlers  had  been  familiar  with  in  their  former  homes  in  the  more  settled 
regions.  We  have  seen  how  the  government  early  made  provision  for  the 
establishment  of  a  great  post  road  from  the  east  to  the  west.  But  the  actual 
transportation  and  distribution  of  mail  was  a  very  uncertain  matter  for 
many  years,  and  depended  largely  on  the  provision  that  each  community 
could  make  for  that  purpose.  The  mail  stage  b^ail  running  in  the  early 
thirties  along  the  Chicago  road,  and  the  various  stations  along  that  highway 
were  the  distributing  points  from  which  mail  was  carried  to  the  settlements 
in  the  remote  townships.  Some  convenient  settler's  cabin  was  selected  a? 
the  posVoffice.  and  there  the  neighbors  would  gather  to  recei^'e  a  chance  letter 
or  hear  the  reading  of  a  newspaper  brought  in  by  the  last  mail.  Since  the 
establishment  of  a  postoffice  usually  marked  an  important  stage  in  the  history 
of  a  village  or  hamlet,  the  individual  postoffices  of  the  county  have  received 
appropriate  mention  in  connection  with  the  account  of  the  different  localities. 

Letters  were  a  luxury  in  pioneer  times.  Tliey  were  written  on  foolscap 
paper  and  so  folded  that  one  side  was  left  blank,  so  as  to  form  its  own 
envelope,  it  beJng  sealed  with  wax  or  a  wafer.  This  latter  custom  was 
followed  for  many  years,  and  some  of  these  sheets  folded  according  to  the 
usual  manner,  with  some  of  the  wax  of  the  seal  still  adhering  to  them,  and 
with  the  post-mark  "  Mic.  T."  showing  that  they  were  sent  during  the 
territorial  days,  may  be  seen  in  some  of  the  first  miscellaneous,  files  in  the 
county  clerk's  office. 

Postal  advantages  were  centralized  formerly.  To  get  one's  mail  it  was 
necessary  to  go  where  it  was  distributed,  whether  that  was  at  the  settler's 
cabin  above  mentioned  or  at  a  pennanent  office  fitted  up  for  the  purpose,  as 
is  the  case  with  larger  places.  The  most  striking  change  in  postal  service 
was  effected  when  mail  matter  began  to  be  carried  to  the  persons  addressed 
instead  of  those  persons  calling  at  a  central  place  where  the  mail  was  kept. 
Mail  delivery  marks  a  great  step  of  progress,  not  so  nnich  in  the  case  of  the 
cities,  as  in  the  country,  where  the  system  of  rural  free  delivery  has  undoubt- 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  J  35 

fldly  effected  more  for  the  welfare  and  intelligence  of  the  rural  population 
than  any  other  factor  of  recent  years. 

In  the  history  of  the  grange  movement  something  has  been  said  con- 
cerning the  beginnings  of  rural  delivery.  The  first  routes  were  established 
from  the  Coldwater  postoffice  in  1901,  and  since  that  time  the  entire  county 
has  received  these  facilities,  there  being  sixteen  carriers  over  as  many  routes, 
with  CoMwater  city  and  each  of  the  four  villages  as  centers,  with  one  or 
more  routes  also  from  Batavia  and  Kinderhook. 

Telephone. 

ComnninJcation  by  telephone  is  now  in  such  general  and  familiar  use 
in  the  county  that  it  is  difficult  to  realize  that  this  invention  is  modern. 
There  is  probably  not  a  person  in  Branch  county  who  does  not  at  least  know 
of  the  telephone,  and  in  hundreds  of  homes  and  in  nearly  every  business 
house  will  be  found  one  of  these  instruments.  Every  road  has  its  line  of 
poles  and  strings  of  wire,  binding  together  separate  homes,  communities, 
villages  and  distant  cities.  Less  than  thiry  years  have  sufficietl  to  effect  this 
condition.  Mr.  A.  Graham  Belt,  the  inventor  of  the  telephone,  was  suc- 
cessfully conducting  experiments  in  the  early  seventies, .  but  the  first  time 
his  invention  was  exhibited  in  a  practical  form  to  the  general  public  was  at 
the  centennial  exposition  at  Philadelphia  in  1876.  A  standard  encyclopedia, 
pubHshed  in  1877,  in  describing  this  invention,  speaks  of  it  as  "  telegraphic 
transmission  of  articulate  sounds,"  and  further  goes  on  to  state  as  the  climax 
of  the  wonderful  discovery  that  "  we  may  confidently  expect  that  Mr,  Bell 
will  give  us  the  means  of  making  voice  and  spoken  words  audible  through 
the  electric  wire  to  an  ear  hundreds  of  miles  distant." 

Branch  county  began  using  this  invention  in  1882.  Tlie  Coldwater 
Republican  of  September  i.  1882,  states  that  "the  labor  of  putting  up  a 
line  has  commenced.  The  central  office  will  he  located  in  the  third  story 
of  the  F.  V,  Smith  &  Co.'s  building.  About  forty  instruments  have  been 
ordered,  and  connection  will  also  be  made  with  Quincy  and  Union  City." 
How  the  invention  was  regarded  is  best  told  in  an  issue  of  the  same  paper 
published  in  October,  1882.  The  telephones  by  that  time  were  in  operation, 
and  the  writer  declared  that  "  a  person  standing  at  any  telephone  in  the  city 
can  converse  with  parties  at  the  State  School  in  an  ordinary  tone,  and  many 
times  can  distinguish  the  voice  of  the  speaker.  It  is  certainly  a  wonderful 
and  useful  instrument,  and  we  hoix;  to  see  our  city  connected  this  fall  with 
Union  City  and  Quincy." 

This  was  the  beginning  of  telephone  communication  in  Branch  county. 
The  first  telephones  were  operated  by  the  original  Bell  company,  but  not 
long  after  the  system  of  which  they  were  a  part  was  formed  under  the  sepa- 
rate name  of  the  Michigan  State  Telephone  Company,  which  is  now  virtually 
a  Michigan  company,  run  by  Michigan  men  and  capital,  and  with  long-dis- 
tance connections. 

7  he  Michigan  State  Telephone  Company  now  has  950  subscribers  to 


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136  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

the  Coldwater  exchange;  in  1889  there  were  39.  The  headquarters  of  the 
company  are  in  Detroit,  The  Ouincy  exchange  of  this  company  was  opened 
about  igoi,  and  that  Jn  Union  City  about  fifteen  years  ago.  In  Quincy 
there  are  about  60  subscribers,  and  in  Union  City  300  subscribers,  two-thirds 
of  tiljese  being  farmers.  Three  hundred  of  the  Coldwater  subscribers  are 
farmers.  In  Sherwood  is  an  exchange  with  75  subscribers,  and  at  Kast 
Gilead  Mr.  F.  J.  Conldin  is  a  sub-licensee  with  50  subscribers.  An  exchange 
is  also  to  be  opened  in  Bronson. 

The  Wolverine  Telephone  Company  was  the  first  independent  telephone 
company  in  Branch  county.  It  began  oi^erating  in  the  county  March  25, 
1904.  December  29,  1905,  this  line  was  consolidated  with  the  Southern 
Michigan  Telephone  Company,  whose  main  office  is  at  Burr  Oak,  and  which 
was  fomterly  known  as  the  Himehaugh  line. 

Ttie  Quincy  Independent  Telephone  C'.MTipany  began  operating  May 
15,  1904.  Though  a  separate  line,  it  works  in  connection  with  the  Southern 
Michigan  Company,  and  service  from  one  to  the  other  of  these  lines  over 
the  entire  county  is  free.  The  establishment  of  these  independent  hues  has 
brought  alxiut  reduction  of  rates  from  the  older  company  and  both  lines 
liave  been  stimulated  to  offer  better  service.  Besides  these,  there  are  three 
or  four  farmers'  private  lines  in  the  county,  the  best  known  being  the  DoiJar- 
hite  line,  working  south  of  Ouincy,  with  some  eighty  subscribers.  Mr.  John 
Babcock,  now  of  Quincy,  was  the  original  promoter  of  the  indqiendent  lines 
east  of  Coldwater.  In  1902-3  he  was  living  about  four  miles  east  of  Quincy. 
In  1903  he  and  eight  other  farmers  formed  a  line  of  their  owTi.  Mr.  H.  W. 
Noble.  Mr.  A.  L,  Bowen  and  Mr.  Samuel  N.  Swan  were  associated  with  him 
in  the  management.  The  Quincy  Independent  Line  now  has  130  subscribers 
in  the  village  and  250  in  the  country  about  it. 

Present  Conditions. 

One  other  aspect  of  communication  deserves  mention.  Tlie  rapid 
progress  in  this  department  of  human  affairs  is  almost  bewildering,  and  the 
events  fellow  in  such  succession  that  at  this  time  it  is  difficult  to  designate 
each  one  witn  date  and  results.  In  June,  igo6,  there  were  107  automobiles 
owned  by  citizens  of  Coldwater.  a  remarkable  number  considering  the  size 
of  the  city  and  comparing  favorably  with  the  number  in  cities  of  twice  tl'e 
size.     There  are  also  several  machines  in  each  of  the  villages. 

In  the  year  of  this  writing  the  automobile  measures  the  highest  develop- 
ment cf  what  may  be  termed  "  individual  conveyance."  that  is,  means  of 
transpoi tation  apart  from  the  organized  and  systematic  facilities  furnished 
by  the  railroad  or  steamship  companies.  Ten  years  ago  the  bicycle  repre- 
sented that  highest  development.  Wagons  and  carriages  drawn  by  horses, 
which  have  been  most  depended  on  throughout  the  period  of  this  history, 
have  not  been  superseded,  but  it  remains  a  matter  of  interesting  speculation 
what  the  subsequent  decades  will  bring  about  in  this  matter  of  communica- 
tion.    What  roads  have  done  in  directing  the  settlement  and  upbuilding  of 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  137 

this  county  has  been  described  at  length,  and  easy  communication  has  been 
emphasized  as  a  dominant  factor  of  our  development.  But  with  the  improve- 
ment of  roadways  in  keeping  with  the  progress  in  means  of  conveyance,  the 
civilization  of  the  next  quarter  century  may  be  entirely  rearranged. 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 


CHAPTER  XIX. 
THE  COUNTY'S  NEWSPAPERS. 

Something  should  be  said  concerning  the  general  character  and  make- 
up of  the  early  newspapers.  An  examination  of  newspaper  files  dated  during 
the  forties  and  fifties  and  published  in  various  parts  of  the  country,  leads  one 
to  believe  that  there  was  little  individuality  in  the  pioneer  press.  A  uniform 
method  was  followed  in  arranging  and  selecting  matter  thought  to  be  suita- 
ble for  the  public's  reading.  Cut  off  the  title  head  and  the  place  of  publica- 
tion, and  it  would  require  considerable  search  to  discover  the  exact  locality 
where  the  paper  was  issued. 

Of  local  news  scarcely  any  is  to  be  found  in  the  papers  of  sixty  years 
ago.  For  that  reason  the  historical  investigator  is  usually  disapix)inted  so 
far  as  large  returns  for  his  study  of  the  files  are  concerned.  Here  and  there, 
lodged  between  an  account  of  a  political  campaign  in  another  state  and  a 
continued  story,  may  be  found  an  item  of  value,  like  a  bit  of  gold  quartz 
buried  in  worthless  drift.  Of  the  columns  of  personal  mention  and  local 
happenings,  which  are  the  real  life  of  the  modern  newspaper,  nothing  can 
be  found  in  the  early  files  in  Branch  county,  which  is  no  exception  to  tiie 
rule  in  other  counties.  As  a  veteran  Michigan  editor  says,  the  old-time 
publisher  would  delightedly  seize  upon  a  letter  from  Europe  containing 
news  three  months  old,  giving  it  several  columns  on  his  front  page,  while 
matters  of  local  concern  would  be  disregarded  entirely. 

The  most  graphic  illustration  of  these  facts  about  the  old-time  news- 
paper is  to  be  seen  in  a  description  of  the  contents  of  the  first  number  of  the 
Coldwater  Sentinel,  which  was  issued  April  i6,  1841,  and  which  is  no  doubt 
typical  in  form  and  content  of  three-fourths  of  the  local  newspapers  pub- 
lished throughout  the  country  in  that  week. 

The  first  two  columns  of  this  old  Sentinel  are  filled  with  advertisements 
of  medicine,  of  the  magazine  New  World,  the  millwright  Jeremiah  Case 
of  Broiison,  an  insurance  company,  a  list  of  letters,  and  some  legal  notices. 
The  third  column  begins  with  some  selected  poetry,  and  is  filled  out  with 
paragraphs  of  wit  and  humor.  The  fourth,  fifth  and  sixth  columns,  half 
of  the  front  page,  are  devoted  to  foreign  news,  which  is  also  continued  in 
the  first  column  of  the  second  page,  followed  by  two  columns  of  news  from 
the  state  legislature.  All  the  column  rules  of  the  two  inside  pages  are 
inverted  in  token  of  the  death  of  President  William  Henry  Harrison,  which 
occurred  on  April  4th.  An  account  of  this  fills  the  remaining  columns  of 
the  second  page.  Page  three  is  entirely  filled  with  political  news,  legal 
notices,  advertisements,  with  a  few  miscellanies  intermingled.     On  page  four 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  139 

begins  the  story.  "  The  Banker's  Daughter,"  and  her  interesting  fate  is  told 
in  three  and  a  half  cohimns.  The  story,  by  the  way,  was  clipped  from  a 
London  paper.  The  rest  of  the  page  contains  advertisements  of  "  household 
magazines  "  and  a  certain  brand  of  pills.  In  the  entire  sheet  the  only  items 
of  local  interest  are  a  few  advertisements  inserted  by  business  and  profes- 
sional men,  and  a  brief  account  of  the  formation  of  a  county  medical  society. 

Michigan.  Star. 

The  first  newspaper  ])ubHshed  in  Branch  county  was  the  Michigan  Star, 
by  the  Branch  County  Printing  Company,  the  first  number  being  issued  at 
the  old  county  seat  at  Branch  village  in  May,  1837.  Charles  P.  West  wai 
the  first  and  only  editor  and  publisher,  for  the  career  of  the  Star  was  ended 
in  less  than  a  year,  and  it  was  the  only  paper  that  Branch  village  ever  had. 

CoMzoatrr  Obscn'cr. 

The  rivalry  between  Branch  and  Coldwater  during  the  thirties  is  in  no 
way  better  illustrated  than  in  the  history  of  this  paper.  The  Observer  was 
established  to  offset  the  advantage  that  accrued  to  Branch  from  having  the 
Star  to  advertise  the  county  seat  village  to  the  world  and  thus  focus  atten- 
tion upon  its  location.  Dr.  Thomas  N.  Calkins  and-  E.  G.  Fuller  were 
behind  the  enterprise,  circulated  the  subscription  paper,  and  when  the  paper 
was  started  acted  as  editors  and  managers.  How  shrewdly  they  engineered 
the  enterprise  to  the  detriment  of  its  rival  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  they 
procured  the  foreman  of  the  Star  to  act  as  publisher  of  the  Observer.  The 
first  number  was  issued  July  18,  1837,  and  its  appearance  was  an  occasion 
of  rejoicing  among  the  people  of  Coldwater.  Dr.  Calkins  was  soon  called 
to  a  higher  place  in  journalism,  becoming  one  of  the  editors  of  the  Detroit 
Free  Press.  Another  physician.  Dr.  Bement,  succeeded  him,  some  time  in 
1838.  and  changed  the  pa[>er  to  the  Branch  County  News.  In  the  meantime 
the  old  Michigan  Star  had  discontinued,  and  the  necessity  for  a  paper  iq 
Coldwater  was  no  longer  so  great.  The  publication  was  soon  suspended, 
therefore. 

The  material  remained,  however,  and  two  young  men  named  Jocelyn 
and  Horton  originated  and  gave  a  brief  existence  to  the  Branch  County 
Democrat. 

Coldwater  Sentinel. 

April  16,  1841,  Mr.  Albert  Chandler,  so  long  and  prominently  identified 
with  the  newspaper  and  business  interests  of  Erandi  county,  published  the 
first  number  of  the  Coldwater  Sentinel,  announcing  that  he  had  bought  the 
Horton  printing  equipment,  so  that  in  a  sense  the  SenUnel  was  a  continua- 
tion of  the  first  Coldwater  paper. 

The  Sentinel  had  an  existence  of  nearly  twenty  years,  and  its  bound 
volumes,  which  are  preserved  practically  complete  until  1854,  contain  the 
most  exact  and  detailed  data  on  Branch  county  history  of  that  period  that 
can  be  found  anywhere.     Various  firm  names  appeared  as  publishers  through 


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1*0  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

this  time.  Chandler  and  Haynes  (John  T.)  were  publishers  in  1844.  In 
1846  it  became  Chandler  and  Stillmaii,  the  latter  being-  Dr.  H.  B.  Stillman, 
and  in  September  of  the  same  year  the  firm  was  Chandler  and  Waterman 
(David).  In  1849  Elihu  B.  Pond  became  editor  and  proprietor.  He  was 
one  of  the  most  forceful  of  early  Branch  county  editors,  and  made  his  paper 
a  practical  and  decided  influence.  He  began  what  he  called  the  "  new 
series  "  of  the  Sentinel,  the  issue  o£  December  7,  1849,  heing  numbered  as 
Volume  J,  No.  i.  In  June,  1854,  S.  W.  Driggs  and  H.  C.  Gilbert  became 
proprietors  and  conducted  the  Sentinel  two  years,  Barrett  and  Reynolds 
conducted  it  two  years  longer,  from  the  fall  of  1856,  and  it  then  passed  into 
the  possession  of  Judge  J,  H.  Gray,  who  soon  sold  the  plant  and  it  was  re- 
moved to  Port  Huron,  where  it  was  used  to  print  the  Port  Huron  Press. 
The  Sentinel  was  the  upholder  of  Democratic  principles  on  all  occasions. 

Branch  County  Journal. 

In  the  meantime  Coldwater  had  another  paper.  B.  F,  Thompson  estab- 
lished and  issued  the  first  number  of  the  Branch  County  Journal  on  No\'em- 
ber  II,  1851.  This  was  the  first  Whig  paper  in  the  county.  In  June,  1852, 
the  proprietors  became  C.  A-  and  B.  F.  Thompson,  the  former  being  the 
father  of  B.  F.  March  8,  1853,  E.  J.  Hard  and  H.  B.  Robinson  became 
proprietors,  two  years  later  Bames  and  Way,  and  it  then  passed  through 
the  hands  of  Bates  Dewey  and  Clinton  B.  Fisk  to  E,  B.  Dewey,  who  moved 
the  plant  to  Elkhart  about  1856. 

The  Branch  County  Republican. 

This  paper,  the  first  in  Branch  county  to  become  the  outspoken  exponent 
of  Republican  party  principles,  was  established  at  Coldwater  in  the  fall  of 
1857?  by  Messrs,  Eddy  and  Gray.  Judge  J.  H.  Gray  has  already  been  men- 
tioned in  connection  with  the  concluding  history  of  the  Sentinel.  About  a 
year  and  a  half  after  its  establishment  the  Republican  became  the  sole  prop- 
erty of  Judge  Gray,  who  conducted  it  with  his  son  Horace  J.  Grav,  until 
1861. 

In  the  latter  year  F.  B.  Way  bought  the  Republican  and  changed  the 
name  to  the  Branch  County  Casette,  although  it  was  conducted  loyally  to 
the  Republican  party  and  to  the  Union  cause  during  the  succeeding  Civil 
war.  Diiring  this  period  two  well  known  men  in  county  politics  were 
editors  for  a  time,  J.  H,  McGowan  and  C.  P.  Benton.  Tlie  next  event  in 
the  history  of  the  Gazette  brings  us  to  the  consideration  of 

The  Republican. 

August  23,  1866,  Major  D.  J.  Easton,  later  the  founder  of  the  Union 
City  Register,  published  the  first  number  of  the  Republican  at  Coldwater. 
In  the  following  December  Dr.  P.  P.  Nichols,  another  well  known  news- 
paper man  of  the  county,  purchased  an  interest  and  became  one  of  the  editors 
of  the  Republican.     Easton  and  Nichols  sold  out  after  a  year  to  W.  J.  and 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  141 

O.  A.  Bowen.  The  Republican  was  growing  as  the  leading  Republican 
paper  of  the  county,  and  in  1868  the  firm  bought  its  only  rival  for  the 
patronage  of  that  party,  the  Gazette,  the  history  of  which  paper  ends  at  that 
time.  W.  J.  Bowen  continued  as  one  of  the  proprietors  of  the  Republican 
for  several  years,  and  the  firm  at  one  time  was  Bowen,  Rose  and  Skeels,  the 
latter  being  F.  L.  Skeels,  the  Coldwater  lawyer. 

In  1873  A.  J.  Aldrich  and  Company  bought  the  Republican.  Mr.  A. 
J.  Aldrich,  who  was  born  in  Girard  township  and  whose  grandfather  built 
the  first  mill  on  the  site  of  Hodunk,  is  yet  Jiving  in  Coldwater.  He  was  in- 
terested in  the  Republican  as  editor  or  proprietor  imtil  1893.  The  enterprise 
of  the  new  firm  was  manifested  in  the  issue,  August  3,  1875,  of  the  first 
number  of  the  "  Setm-Weekly  ReptihUcan,"  the  first  newspaper  in  Branch 
county  to  break  away  from  the  once-a-week  issue.  Tlie  paper  was  enlarged 
on  December  3,  1875.  Th^  Republican  continued  as  the  leading  Republican 
newspaper  for  many  years,  and  for  many  reasons  is  the  best  known  of  former 
Coldwater  papers.  It  continued  to  hold  a  place  in  the  field  of  active  and 
enterprising  journalism  until  1897,  when  it  was  consolidated  with  the 
Courier,  and  its  history  is  practically  a  part  of  the  following  account  of  the 
Cojirier. 

The   Canrier. 

The  history  of  the  Coldwater  Courier  dates  from  November  4,  1882, 
when  the  first  numlier,  a  large  size  folio,  was  issued  with  the  names  of  W.  G. 
Moore  and  P.  P.  Nichols.  Mr.  Moore,  who  is  still  a  resident  of  Coldwater, 
was  connected  with  this  paper  as  citj'  editor  for  about  twenty  years,  until 
he  was  succeeded  by  Mr.  H.  F.  Bailey,  the  present  city  editor.  In  Decem- 
ber, 1885.  the  Courier  became  an  eight-page  paper,  and  at  various  times  the 
size  of  the  page  was  changed  to  conform  to  the  needs  of  the  publishers. 

The  next  change  of  proimetorship  to  he  noted  from  an  examination 
of  the  files  occurred  in  November.  1888,  when  J.  N.  Foster  became  the  asso- 
ciate of  Mr.  Moore,  the  firm  being  known  as  Foster  and  Moore.  September 
28,  1889,  they  announced  the  sale  of  the  Ccnirier  to  C.  H.  Newell  and  C.  W". 
Owen.  Mr.  Newell  had  been  connected  with  the  Wabash,  Indiana,  Plain 
Dealer,  and  Mr.  Owen  came  from  Bronson,  where  he  had  been  editor  and 
publisher  of  the  Herald.  This  partnership  continued  until  September  27, 
1890.  when  Mr.  Newell  went  to  other  fields,  and  Mr.  Owen  then  conducted 
the  paper  alone  until  April  2,  1892,  when  we  again  find  over  the  editorial 
column  the  names  Newell  and  Owen.  A  little  more  than  a  year,  and  on 
.April  8,  1893,  the  Courier  was  pubhshed  by  Mr.  Owen  and  Major  G.  H. 
Turner.  September  i,  1894,  Mr.  Neweil  took  the  place  of  Mr.  Owen,  and 
for  more  than  six  years  these  gentlemen  remained  in  iiartnership.  Since 
February  22,  1901,  Mr.  C.  H.  Newell  has  been  sole  proprietor. 

March  23,  1897,  a  consolidation  was  effected  of  two  of  Branch  county's 
well  known  journals.  On  that  date  Newell  and  Turner  bought  the  Cold- 
water  RepuhUcan.  and  three  days  later  the  issue  appears  with  the  title  "  The 
Courier  and  Republican."     Although  generally  known  as  simply  the  Coitrier, 


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142  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

this  combined  title  remained  until  April  30,   1906,  when  the  second  part  of 
the  heading  was  dropped. 

Beginning'  with  the  issue  of  November  24,  1899,  the  Courier  and 
Republican  was  enlarged  to  twelve  pages  a  week  instead  of  ten,  and  was 
issued  in  two  parts — four  pages  on  Tuesday  and  eight  on  Friday.  On  July 
7,  1902,  the  Courier  became  a  daily  paper,  and  was  so  continued  through  the 
political  campaign  of  that  year  until  December  ist,  when  the  number  o£ 
weekly  issues  was  reduced  to  three,  or,  to  quote  its  own  statement,  it  is 
published  "  every  other  day." 

The  Reporter. 

The  Daily  Reporter  of  Coldwater  was  founded  as  the  result  of  a  spon- 
taneous interest  in  journalism  combined  with  the  means  to  gratify  that 
interest  without  the  large  outlay  for  plant  and  equipment  needed  by  the 
modern  newspaper.  The  late  Mr.  S.  B.  Kitche!  had  for  several  years  before 
the  establishment  of  the  Reporter  conducted  a  considerable  plant  to  supply 
the  printing  required  for  a  very  extensive  system  of  advertising.  A  regular 
force  was  employed  in  this  department,  and  the  machinery  and  type  assort- 
ment were  quite  equal  to  the  publishing  of  a  periodical  paper. 

Tt  was  during  the  early  winter  of  1895-96  when,  to  avoid  a  shut-down 
of  the  printing  plant  during  the  usually  dull  period  in  that  department,  it 
was  deemed  expedient  to  start  a  daily  paper.  Accordingly  on  the  i6th  of 
December,  1S95,  the  first  number  of  the  Daily  Reporter  appeared,  with  S.  E. 
Kitchel  as  publisher.  At  the  time  there  was  no  intention  to  continue  the 
enterprise  beyond  the  holiday  season,  when  the  business  printing  would 
again  make  full  demands  on  the  establishment.  But  the  Daily  Reporter 
seemed  to  fiU  an  important  place  in  the  city  and  county.  The  people  were 
pleased  with  the  new  journal,  and  the  publisher  was  satisfied  with  his  new 
departure  in  business.  So  the  Reporter  continued  to  be  issued  daily,  and 
has  maintained  an  iminterrupted  record  in  this  respect  to  the  present  time. 
As  a  financial  investment  the  Reporter  was  not  a  dividend-maker  for  several 
years.  ,Tn  fact  Mr.  Kitchel  is  reported  to  have  said,  "  I  do  not  want  any 
money  out  of  the  Reporter.  Keep  the  balance  just  enough  on  the  right  side 
to  be  sure  not  to  lose  money,  and  give  the  people  all  the  news  they  will  pay 
for."  The  personal  satisfaction  he  got  in  maintaining  a  daily  paper  in  Cold- 
water  was  more  important  to  its  publisher  than  financial  returns, 
i  After  the  Daily  Reporter  had  been  in  existence  about  a  year  a  weekly 
issue  was  established,  and  then  on  March  15,  1898,  the  Semi-Weekly  Re- 
porter b^an  its  first  volume.  Mr.  S.  B,  Kitchel  continued  in  active  control 
of  the  paper  until  his  death  in  July,  1905,  since  which  time  his  son  Horace 
has  been  publisher. 

The  mechanical  equipment  of  the  Reporter  office  is  not  excelled  in 
southern  Michigan  west  of  Detroit.  To  guard  against  delays  the  important 
machinery  has  been  duplicated,  so  that  there  are  two  engines,  dynamos,  two 
folding  machines,  three  job  presses,  a  large  cylinder  press,  and  recently  there 
has  been  installed  a  Cox  Duplex  newspaper  press  with  a  capacity  equal  to 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  143 

aH  the  demand  that  many  years  of  increase  may  make.  All  the  regular  news- 
paper composition  is  done  by  linotype,  there  being  two  of  these  machines 
in  the  office.  The  foreman  of  the  press  room  is  Harry  W.  Barber,  who  has 
been  connected  with  this  department  in  various  capacities  for  ten  years. 

Of  the  city  editors  of  the  Reporter  there  should  be  named  Charles 
Segiir,  until  recently  with  the  Hudson  Gazette;  A.  J.  Aldrich,  now  retired ; 
Willis  Bailey,  now  in  the  job  printing  business  in  Coldwater;  Harry  Bailey, 
now  city  editor  of  the  Courier;  James  J.  Hudson,  now  with  the  Jackson 
Citizen,  and  A.  Riley  Crittenden. 

Of  the  general  character  of  the  Reporter  as  a  newspaper  and  in  its  rela- 
tions to  the  community,  it  may  be  stated  that  it  has  been  conducted  inde- 
pendently as  to  political  and  general  afifairs.  It  should  also  be  said  that  its 
columns  have  always  been  open  to  the  individual  citizen,  and  contributions 
to  its  pages  have  come  from  a  large  number  of  locai  writers  covering  a  wide 
variety  of  topics. 

The   Sun    and  Star. 

The  Coidwater  Sun  is  one  of  the  papers  of  the  county  with  a  continuous 
existence  of  a  quarter  of  a  century.  It  was  established  in  1881,  its  first 
publisher  being  Mr.  C.  J.  Thorp>  still  a  resident  of  Coldwater.  After  Mr. 
Thorp  the  principal  management  of  the  Sun  passed  into  the  hands  of  Mr. 
W.  C.  Bailey. 

September  24,  1891,  the  Sun  Publishing  Co.,  was  organized  and  in- 
corporated, with  a  capital  stock  of  five  thousand  dollars,  all  paid  in.  The 
original  stockholders  were  well  known  men  of  Branch  county,  the  articles 
of  incorporation  being  signed  by  Gen.  J.  G.  Parkhurst,  Judge  J.  B.  Shipman, 
Rev.  Henry  Hughes,  C.  E,  Barlow,  A.  E.  Elackman,  Gilbert  Hoopengarner, 
C.  McKay,  of  Quincy;  W.  B.  Downer,  H.  D.  Pessell,  of  .Qnincy.  The  first 
directors  of  the  company  were  H.  D.  Pessell,  president ;  C,  E.  Barlow,  vice 
president;  J.  G.  Parkhurst,  secretary  and  treasurer.  Mr.  A.  E.  Blackman 
was  the  principal  stockholder,  and  two  days  after  the  organization  of  the 
company  the  plant  was  leased  to  A.  E.  Blackman  and  Son,  who  published 
the  paper.  In  June,  1892,  H,  C.  Blackman,  the  son,  and  now  of  the  Hills- 
dale Democrat,  succeeded  to  the  management  of  the  paper.  The  next  change 
occurred  Jime  14,  1892,  when  C.  A,  White  became  owner  of  most  of  the 
stock  and  took  the  lease  from  Mr.  Blackman.  The  next  lessee  of  the  plant 
and  publisher  was  Mr.  H.  A.  Bates,  who  conducted  the  Sim  from  April 
26,  1894,  until  June  15,  1903. 

On  the  latter  date  Mr.  J.  S.  Evans  came  into  control  of  the  stock.  The 
Sun  Publishing  Company  is  still  a  corporation,  but  Mr.  Evans  is  virtual 
owner  and  has  entire  control  of  the  management  and  policy  of  the  paper. 
The  present  directors  of  the  company  are  J.  S.  Evans,  president;  Mrs. 
Carrie  E.  Eigenherr,  vice  president;  Nellie  F.  Evans,  treasurer,  and  Robert 
G.  Evans,  secretary. 

On  June  15,  1893,  a  number  of  Branch  county  citizens  associated  them- 
selves under  articles  of  incorporation  as  the  Star  Publishing  Company.     The 


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Hi  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

authorized  capital  was  five  thousand  dollars,  but  only  about  a  fourth  of  the 
stock  was  issued.  The  incorporators  comprised  a  long  list  of  well  known 
names  in  Coidwater  and  vicinity,  and  the  first  directors  were  D.  T>.  Pretty, 
president;  DeWitt  C.  Shaw,  Rev.  E.  O.  Smith,  E.  E  Bostwick.  of  Union 
City,  and  I^ancaster  Coffnian.  These  men  founded  the  Coldwater  Star  as  a 
Prohibition  newspaper.  It  has  since  remained  the  official  organ  of  that 
movement  in  Branch  coitnty,  opposing  the  liquor  business  either  through  the 
formation  of  public  opinion  or  through  political  means  or  in  whatever  way 
the  fight  is  carried  on. 

Mr.  W.  C.  Bailey  was  employed  as  the  manager  and  editor  of  the  Star, 
at  first  on  a  salary  basis,  and  later  took  the  entire  business  management. 
Mr.  J.  S.  Evans  was  one  of  the  original  stockholders  of  the  enterprise,  had 
acted  as  legal  adviser  of  the  company,  and  on  July  12,  1899,  he  took  the 
management  of  the  paper,  Mr.  Evans  has  since  published  the  Star,  and 
after  acquiring  control  of  the  Sun,  as  above  mentioned,  he  continued  both 
pai>ers  as  independent  ptiblications  until  December,  1905.  when  he  joined  the 
two  papers  into  the  nature  of  a  semi-weekly,  issuing  the  Star  on  Monday 
and  the  Sun  on  Thursday. 

Other  Coldwater  Papers. 

Several  other  newspapers  have  had  a  more  or  less  brief  and  influential 
career  in  Coldwater.  After  the  passing  of  the  old  Sentinel,  the  next  Demo- 
cratic organ  in  the  county  was  the  Democratic  Union,  published  from  1859 
to  1861  by  J.  U.  Hackstaff.  In  1864  the  Coldwater  Union  Sentinel,  Demo- 
cratic but  loyal  to  the  Union,  was  established  by  F.  V.  Smith  and  W.  G. 
Moore,  they  purchasing  the  plant  of  the  ephemeral  Southern  Michigan 
News,  which  had  been  published  for  a  short  time  in  1863  by  T.  G.  Turner. 
Smith  and  Moore  continued  the  publication  of  the  Sentinel  until  1870,  and 
Gibson  brothers  were  the  publishers  until  the  plant  was  burned  and  the  paper 
suspaided. 

In  1S72  the  old  Coldwater  Reporter  was  started,  as  an  independent 
paper,  by  the  late  J.  S.  Conover.  It  passed  through  several  proprietorships, 
Mr.  C.  J.  Thorpe,  now  of  Coldwater,  having  been  connected  with  it  from 
1874  to  1876. 

The  Coldwater  Weekly  Press  was  established  in  October,  1877,  by  B.  L. 
Kingstcm  and  J.  L.  Dennis,  and  soon  after  was  purchased  by  D.  D.  Waggot. 
This  was  the  first  paper  to  attempt  a  daily  issue,  which  continued  from 
January  l,  ta  March  15,  1878,  when  the  usual  aistwn  was  resumed. 

Quiney  Herald. 

The  Qnincy  Herald  was  first  issued  Novernijer  8,  1878.  It  was  pub- 
lished by  the  well  known  soldier  and  Quincy  citizen,  C.  V.  R.  Pond,  until 
June,  1884,  at  which  time  it  passed  to  Mr.  F.  E.  Kittredge,  and  on  April  7, 
1888,  to  Robert  J,  Stephens.  Mr.  Stephens  conducted  it  little  more  than 
two  years,  selling  to  J.  C.  Joiner  on  August  22,   1890.     Mr.  C.  W.  Owen, 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  145 

the  present  editor  and  publisher,  boug-ht  the  Herald  of  Mr.  Joiner,  October 
r,   1894- 

The  Herald  has  long  been  issued  as  a  six-column  quarto,  has  been 
issued  continuously,  and  is  a  Ouincy  paper,  devoted  to  the  welfare  and  in- 
terests of  that  village.  Complete  files  of  the  Herald  are  preserved  in  the 
oflice,  although  not  bound. 

Quincy  Neivs. 

The  Quincy  Netvs  was  established  in  T889,  as  a  weekly.  Mr.  C.  H. 
Young,  the  present  editor  and  manager,  has  been  directing  head  of  the  paper 
since  its  establishment,  and  he  was  its  founder.  In  the  early  part  of  1899  the 
Nezvs  was  improved  by  being  made  a  twice-a-week  newspaper,  and  its  eighth 
volume  as  such  is  now  being  issued.  At  first  it  was  published  as  a  six- 
column  quarto,  but  is  now  a  large  seven-column  folio.  The  News  Pub- 
lishing Company  is  the  name  of  the  business  corporation  publishing  the 
Nezvs,  but  as  already  said,  Mr.  Young  has  always  been  the  leading  spirit  in 
the  management.  No  important  changes  other  than  those  named  have 
occurred  to  lengthen  a  historical  account  of  the  Nczvs.  As  its  history  is 
brief,  so  its  career  has  1)een  successful, 

Quincy  Times. 

The  above  are  the  newspapers  still  in  existence  in  Quincy.  The  first 
paper  of  that  village,  however,  was  the  Quincy  Times,  which  was  estab- 
lished September  11.  1868,  by  R.  W.  I^ockhart.  The  "Times  Company" 
soon  purchased  it,  Ebenezer  Mudge  becoming  the  editor,  and  his  business 
associates  being  S.  Mowrey  and  I,.  L.  Briggs.  Mr.  A.  C.  Culver  purchased 
the  Timfs  March  25,  1876.  The  Times  was  conducted  until  some  time  in 
the  eighties,  when  it  yielded  the  field  to  its  competitor. 

The  predecessor  of  the  Quincy  Herald  was  the  "  Grcenbacker,"  which 
was  established  in  May-  1878,  by  L.  E.  Jacobs.  Its  existence  terminated  in 
October,  and  shortly  after  Mr.  Pond  obtained  the  material  and  began  the 
publication  of  the  Herald. 

The  Literary  Reporter  was  a  monthly  magazine,  established  in  Decem- 
ber, 1872,  whose  publisher  was  Mr.  C.  W.  Bennett,  now  of  Coidwater. 

Branson  Herald. 

The  first  paper  published   outside  of  Coidwater,   except  the  Michigan 

Star  at  Branch,  was  the  Bronson  Herald,  which  was  established  in  the  fall 

of  1865  by  T.  Babcock  and  Company.    It  suspended  publication  in  1871  and 

the  proprietors  moved  the  plant  to  Nebraska. 

Bronson  Journal. 

The  Bronson  Journal  was  founded  in  1881  by  Daniel  D.  Waggot.  In 
August,  1885,  the  well  known  Branch  county  newspaper  man,  C,  W.  Owen, 
purchased  the  Journal  of  I>.  D.  Waggot,  In  February,  1886,  Mr.  Owen 
consolidated  his  paper  with  the  Bronson  Independent,  which  had  been  estab- 


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146  HISTORY  O'F  BRANCH  COUNTY 

lished  in  18S4  by  W.  H.  Wieand  and  N,  Byron  Rii^gles,  and  the  paper  was 
conducted  as  the  Independent- Journal  for  a  few  months  by  the  firm  of  Owen 
;md  Ruggles.  In  September,  1886.  Mr.  Owen  boug'ht  his  partner's  interest, 
changing"  the  name  to  the  Bronson  Journal.  As  such  it  has  since  been  con- 
ducted. Mr.  Owen  sold  the  Journal  in  1889  to  Lon  E.  Draper.  In  1894 
Mr.  Allan  D'.  Shaffmaster,  the  present  editor  and  proprietor,  jiurchased 
the  paper  of  Mr.  Draper. 

Sherwood. 

The  first  newspaper  established  in  the  village  of  Sherwood  was  the 
SherwootI  Neii'S.  Its  career  began  in  1884  under  the  direction  of  A.  C. 
Culver,  although  previous  to  this  time  Maj.  D.  J.  Easton  had  issued  a  Sher- 
wood edition  of  the  Union  City  Register.  Mr.  Culver's  Ne-cvs  continued  for 
two  years,  and  was  succeeded  by  the  Sherwood  Press,  published  by  Ran- 
dall &  Robinson.  The  Press  was  conducted  until  1895.  Mr.  E.  S.  Easton 
established  the  Sherwood  Register  in  1896  and  it  is  still  flourishing.  It  is 
a  four-column,  eight-page  paper,  with  illustrated  supplement  each  week,  and 
faithfully  advances  Sherwood's  interests. 

Union  City  Newspapers. 

The  hi.story  of  newspapers  in  Union  City  is  furnished  by  Mr.  T.  V. 
Robinson,  who  himself  has  been  connected  with  the  newspaper  interests 
of  that  village  for  more  than  twenty  years. 

The  first  newspaper  published  in  Union  City  was  the  Union  City  lyide- 
pcndent,  it  making  its  appearance  in  six-column  folio  form,  October  5, 
1867.     It  was  published  weekly  by  A.  H.  Pattee,  but  was  suspended  in  1868. 

The  Union  City  Independent  was  followed  by  the  Union  City  Register, 
which  first  made  its  appearance  as  a  weekly  publication  in  1869,  the  pub- 
lishers being  Major  D.  J.  Easton  and  Jerome  K,  Bowen.  Major  Easton 
soon  became  the  sole  proprietor,  and  he  continued  as  such  unti!  the  time  of 
his  death,  Augnist  37,  1901.  Major  Easton  was  for  many  years  a  leading 
spirit  in  the  advancement  of  the  material  interests  of  the  town.  In  his  posi- 
tion as  publisher  of  the  sole  paper  here  for  an  extended  period,  he  had  oppor- 
tunities for  doing  good  work  in  these  lines,  and  these  opportunities  he  did 
not  neglect.  He  was  also  a  capable  city  official  for  years,  and  he  was  in- 
strumental in  securing  for  the  place  many  of  the  modern  improvements  we 
now  enjoy.  After  his  death  the  newspaper  was  continued  for  several  months 
by  his  son,  Glenn  S.  Easton,  until  the  sale  of  the  property  to  F.  A,  Bement, 
May  I,  1902. 

Randall  and  Robin,son  established  the  Union  City  Local  here  in  August, 
1885.  In  conjunction  with  this  paper  they  also  published  the  Sherwood 
Press,  the  Tekonsha  News  and  the  Burlington  Echo.  A  large  business  was 
done  until  the  plant  was  destroyed  by  fire  in  1894,  and  then  the  subscription 
list  was  sold  to  the  Union  City  Register. 

May  I,  1896.  Tom  F.  Robinson  commenced  the  publication  of  Robin- 
son's Weekly,  and  in  1899  Will  L.   Robinson  was  taken  into  the  business, 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  147 

the  firm  name  being;  Robinson  Bros.  They  continued  the  publication  of  the 
paper  until  it  was  merged  with  the  Union  City  Register  as  the  Register- 
Weekly,  the  publisher  being  Frank  A..  Bement. 

A.  T.  McCargar  and  Son  purchased  the  plant  and  good  will  of  the 
Register-Weekly  in  November,  1902.  Mr.  A,  T.  McCargar,  the  senior 
member  of  the  firm,  came  here  from  New  York  City,  where  he  had  been  for 
some  years  as  president  and  treasurer  of  the  Baldwin  &  Gleason  Company, 
engravers,  lithographers  and  printers.  Mr.  Will  I..  Robinson,  whose  name 
now  appears  as  publisher,  has  had  the  management  of  the  Register-Weekly 
since  November  i,  1895.  May  i,  T906,  it  was  enlarged  to  a  seven-column 
quarto.  On  July  20,  1906,  it  will  be  enlarged  to  twelve  pages,  of  seven  col- 
umns each. 


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HISTORY  OP  BRANCH  COUNTY 


CHAPTER  XX. 
EDUCATION. 

"  Schools  and  the  means  of  education  shall  forever  be  encouraged." 
These  words  are  found  in  the  famous  ordinance  of  17S7  for  the  govemraent 
of  the  Northwest  Territory  including  the  region  which  is  now  Michigan. 
A  congressional  act  of  1804,  also  with  reference  to  what  is  now  Michigan, 
reserved  from  sale  section  16  of  each  township  "  for  the  support  of  schools." 
These  acts  of  the  national  government  were  passed  before  the  territory  of 
Michigan  was  organized,  and  years  before  the  surveys  were  made  and  the 
hoimdaries  defined  for  Branch  county.  But  the  educational  system  which 
the  people  of  this  count}''  have  used  has  been  provided  by  the  state  in  so  far 
as  the  state  has  undertaken  to  control  the  scheme  and  machinery  of  educa- 
tion. A  brief  glance  at  the  history  of  education  in  Michigan  will  be  a 
proper  introduction  to  a  more  detailed  account  of  the  educational  affairs  of 
the  county. 

The  national  government  took  the  first  steps  in  providing  for  educa- 
tion in  Michigan.  The  sixteenth  section  of  each  township  granted  for  the 
support  of  schools  became,  through  the  efforts  of  Gen.  Isaac  E.  Crary,  Mich- 
igan's first  congressman,  a  principal  source  of  the  State  Primary  School 
Fund,  which  is  now  a  matter  of  pride  to  every  citizen  of  the  state.  It  was 
a  wise  provision,  based  on  the  experience  of  other  states,  that  turned  the 
proceeds  from  the  sale  of  school  lands  into  a  state  fund  instead  of  giving 
them  to  the  township  in  which  the  section  was  located.  Where  the  latter 
system  prevailed  serious  inequalities  resulted  from  the  fact  that  the  desig- 
nated section  was  in  many  cases  inferior  land  and  when  sold  brought  little 
or  nothing  to  the  township  treasury.  And,  also,  the  management  of  one 
large  central  fund  was  more  economical  and  subject  to  less  risks  than  if  the 
money  had  been  left  in  the  many  township  treasuries.  It  is  unnecessary  to 
go  into  the  history  of  the  Primary  School  Fund  further  than  to  say  that 
it  has  increased  from  year  to  year  so  that  the  per  capita  annual  distribution 
of  interest  therefrom  has  more  than  kept  pace  with  the  increase  of  school 
population;  so  that  while  in  :845  the  amount  apportioned  among  the  various 
schools  of  Branch  county  aggregated  $596,  the  November,  1905,  distribu- 
tion alone  amounted  to  $17,563.50,  or  two  dollars  and  seventy  cents  per 
capita. 

The  school  legislation  of  Michigan  while  a  territory  had  little  bearing 
on  the  schools  of  Branch  county,  nor,  in  fact,  on  those  in  any  other  part 
of  the  territory.  But  the  legislature  in  1827  provided  that  "  every  township 
containing  fifty   inhabitants  or  householders  should  employ  a   schoolmaster 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  U'J 

of  good  morals  to  teach  children  to  read  and  write  and  to  instruct  tlieni  in 
the  English  language  as  well  as  in  arithmetic,  orthography  and  decent  be- 
havior." A  department  of  education  was  also  establishecl,  at  whose  head 
was  to  be  a  superintendent  of  common  schools  appointed  by  the  governor, 

Bitt  very  little  was  actually  done  in  the  way  of  public  schools  previous  to 
the  state  organization.  The  first  schools  in  Branch  county  were  the  result 
of  voluntary  effort  on  the  part  of  the  pioneers.  Tlie  first  settlers  came,  as 
we  know,  largely  from  the  northeastern  states,  where  education  was  funda- 
mental and  thoroughly  a  part  of  every-day  life.  It  was  natural,  therefore, 
that  whenever  half  a  dozen  families  within  a  circle  of  two  or  three  miles 
had  secured  a  comfortable  home  shelter,  the  next  business  in  order  was  to 
organize  a  school.  A  site  was  selected,  a  log  building  erected,  and  some 
person  in  the  community  who  had  had  exceptional  advantages  in  the  east  or 
who  professed  an  ability  as  pedagogue  was  employed  to  conduct  the  school. 
And  from  each  home  a  path  was  blazefl  through  the  forest  trees  by  which  the 
children  could  find  their  way  to  and  from  the  schoolhouse. 

The  building  of  this  first  schoolhouse  marked  a  stage  in  the  history 
of  the  community.  Almost  without  exception  in  this  part  of  the  middle 
west  the  school  was  the  first  institution.  It  preceded  the  cimrch,  and  some- 
times the  first  town  meeting  was  held  there.  Tt  was  the  central  point  of  the 
community  life.  There  the  settlers  met  to  vote  and  perform  the  civil  busi- 
ness; there  the  questions  that  confront  a  new  social  organization  were  dis- 
cussed and  solved;  there  men  and  women  met  for  social  enjoyment,  and 
there  they  came  together  for  religious  worship.  The  schoolhouse  was  the 
focal  point  of  pioneer  life,  and  its  imixirtance  cannot  be  too  strongly  em- 
phasized. 

The  early  schoolhouses  have  often  been  described.  Many  were  built  of 
logs,  some  of  sawed  lumber,  while  a  few  were  of  stone  or  brick.  That  the 
log  schoolhouse  is  something  more  than  a  tradition  to  men  and  women  of 
Branch  county  who  are  still  in  the  prime  of  life,  may  be  inferred  from  the 
fact  that  as  late  as  1868  the  county  superintendent  of  schools  reported  five 
log  schoolhouses  in  use.  In  the  following  year  he  reported  that  all  these 
had  disappeared  but  one. 

While  the  exterior  of  the  building  varied,  the  interior  furnishings  were 
about  the  same.  Built  at  one  end  of  the  room  was  the  mud  and  stick  chim- 
ney, with  the  broad  fire-place.  To  keep  the  fire  blazing  briskly  by  a  plentiful 
supply  of  logs  was  the  task  of  the  older  boys,  while  in  the  summer  some  of 
the  girls  would  often  fill  the  bare  hearth  space  with  flowering  plants.  The 
rough  walls  of  the  room  were  unadorned  except  as  the  individual  taste  of 
a  teacher  might  seek  to  relieve  its  dreariness;  the  floors  were  often  of  broad, 
roughly  hewn  puncheons  laid  on  the  ground,  or,  if  the  building  was  of 
frame,  thick  boards  were  spiked  to  ground  sills,  with  wide  cracks  between 
the  boards  affording  an  easy  escape  for  pencils,  jack-knives  and  other  school- 
boy impedimenta. 

The  seats  w;ere  indeed  primitive.  They  were  nothing  more  than  a  split 
log  with  the  flat  surface  up,  and  resting  on  It^s  driven  into  holes  on  the 


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150  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

under  side,  or  the  timber  for  the  seat  might  be  a  plank  with  some  attempt  at 
smoothing'  the  top  surface.  But  there  were  no  backs  to  these  benches,  and 
the  tired  httle  bodies  of  pioneer  children  got  no  rest  except  by  leaning  for- 
ward; little  attentioti  was  paid  in  those  days  to  erectness  of  carriage.  There 
were  no  desks  in  the  modern  sen?e  of  the  term.  Around  two  or  three  sides 
of  the  room  was  fixed  a  broad  board,  with  a  slant  convenient  for  the  writer, 
and  on  this  the  pupils,  or  as  many  of  them  as  this  rough  form  of  desk  would 
accommodate,  did  their  writing  and  figuring.  A  piece  of  slate  was  used  for 
all  calculations,  and  paper  was  only  used  for  penmanship  exercises. 

Of  school  apparatus  there  was  none.  In  tlie  report  for  t868  alxjve 
quoted  the  superintendent  says  a  blackboard  was  the  extent  of  equipment 
in  most  schools,  and  the  blackboard  was  introduced  many  years  after  the 
pioneers'  children  had  gone  from  the  schools  into  actual  life.  Graphite 
pencils  were  also  unknown.  A  "pen  knife"  was  then  a  necessary  part 
of  the  teacher's  equipment^  for  he  used  that  instrument  in  a  way  to  suggest 
the  name,  that  is,  to  manufacture  for  each  scholar  a  pen  from  a  selected 
goosequill.  Paper  was  coarse  and  expensive,  and  the  era  of  cheap  wood- 
pulp  paper  tablets  did  not  begin  until   comparatively  recently. 

When  the  settlers  came  from  the  east  many  of  them  brought  along 
a  few  school  books  such  as  the  parents  had  used,  coming  from  every  one 
of  the  New  England  and  middle  Atlantic  states,  these  books  when  brought 
into  the  school  by  individual  pupils  formed  a  heterogeneous  collection.  Yet 
from  these  the  teacher  was  supposed  to  assign  the  lessons,  and  from  a  chaos 
of  texts  to  reduce  uniformity.  The  difficulty  was  not  so  great  as  might 
be  imagined.  For  the  curriculum  consisted  of  the  three  r^s,  "  reading, 
'ritmg  and  'rithmetic."  and  so  far  as  the  instruction  in  these  branches  went 
it  might  be  obtained  from  almost  any  set  of  books.  The  one  book  that 
seems  to  have  an  abiding  place  in  ever;-  memory  was  the  old  blue^backed 
Webster's  Elementary  Speller.  This  was  the  backbone  of  every  school,  and 
far  from  being  cast  aside  when  school  days  were  oi'er  it  continued  as  the 
basis  for  the  spelling  schools  which  young  and  old  attended  until  within 
the  memory  of  men  and  women  who  are  not  yet  past  the  prime  of  life. 
And  if  we  may  trust  the  judgment  of  many,  spelling  was  a  more  carefully 
cultivated  art  in  those  days  than  at  present,  and  the  boys  and  girls  of  half  a 
century  ago  would  be  more  than  a  match  for  the  present  generation  of  spellers. 

A  school  inspector's  report  on  Batavia  township  for  183S  names  the 
following  books  as  most  commonly  used  in  the  schools:  The  Elementary 
Speller,  OIney's  Geography  and  Atlas,  Daboll's  Arithmetic,  and  Murray's 
Grammar,  and  Murray's  English  Reader.  To  modern  taste,  these  books 
are  dry  and  unattractive  both  in  form  and  content.  What  would  a  bov  or 
girl  think  of  a  reader  without  a  single  illustration  and  with  such  a  title 
page  a.s  this : — "  The  English  Reader :  or  Pieces  in  Prose  and  Poetry,  sel- 
ected fron\  the  Best  Writers,  designed  to  assist  young  persons  to  read  with 
Propriety  and  Effect;  to  Improve  their  Language  and  Sentiments,  and  to 
inculcate  some  of  the  most  important  Principles  of  Piety  and  Virtue;  with 
a  few  preliminary  observations  on  the  Principles  of  Good  Reading."     Such 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  151 

was  the  Murray  English  Reader,  printed  in  1818  and  in  common  use  among 
the  first  schools  of  Branch  coimty. 

Such  were,  in  general,  the  first  schools  in  Branch  county.  Although  no 
efficient  system  of  education  was  established  until  after  Michigan  became  a 
state,  there  were,  as  above  noted,  voluntary  associations  among  the  settlers 
for  holding  school  sessions  in  certain  localities.  The  data  is  not  available 
for  a  complete  .sketch  of  the  eariy  schools,  and  no  complete  reports  from 
over  the  -county  are  to  be  found  previous  to   1850. 

Tile  first  school  was  taught  in  the  locality  of  the  first  settiement.  John 
Toole,  an  immigrant  of  i82g,  located  in  what  is  now  Bronson  township 
and  taught  a  small  school  there  in  the  winter  of  1829-30.  There  were  at 
that  time  probably  not  more  than  five  or  six  families  in  all  to  contribute  to 
its  support.  Shortly  after,  perhaps  in  the  next  winter,  a  school  was  taught 
rai  Bronson  prairie  by  Columbia  Lancaster,  the  versatile  pioneer  who  could 
be  pedagogue,  lawyer  and  doctor  at  will.  School  was  held  in  a  log  build- 
ing, probably  the  first  erected  for  that  purpose  in  the  county.  Mrs.  David 
Waterman  was  teacher  of  a  summer  school  at  the  same  place.  Cynthia 
Gfoyd  is  also  named  as  one  of  the  first  teachers  of  the  township. 

In  1832  the  well  known  Bishop  Philander  Chase,  who  did  so  much  in 
building  up  Episcopacy  in  the  west,  came  to  the  county  seeking  a  farm. 
Delighted  with  the  country  about  Gilead,  he  settled  there  with  his  family, 
and  built  a  school  building  in  1833.  Tliis  house  was  twenty  by  thirty  feet 
and  two  stories  high.  The  first  teacher  was  the  Bishop's  nephew,  Samuel 
Chase.  The  old  "  seminary  "  building  remained  standing  on  section  9  for 
over  forty  years,  and  became  in  time  a  dwelling,  being  used  as  such  until 
lorn  down.  This  Episcopal  school  was  maintained  for  several  years,  and 
the  children  of  the  first  settlers  were  schooled  there.  Mrs.  David  N.  Green 
of  Coldwater  is  probably  the  only  surviving  pupil  of  that  school,  she  having 
come  to  the  settlement  in  1838  and  attended  tlie  school  while  Dudley  Chase, 
a  son  of  the  Bishop,  was  teacher. 

The  subject  of  the  early  schools  of  Coldwater  has  been  very  thoroughly 
treated  by  Mr,  C,  N.  Legg.  He  says:  "The  earliest  settlers  appear  to 
have  combined  to  hire  instruction  for  their  children  by  tutors,  and  the  chil- 
dren, the  few  there  were,  met  in  the  cabins  of  the  pioneers.  Cynthia  Gloyd, 
a  woman  who  later  taught  in  the  first  schoolhouse,  was  engaged  to  teach 
at  different  places  prior  to  the  erection  of  a  schoolhouse.  The  first  build- 
ing for  use  as  a  schoolhouse  was  erected  at  the  comer  of  where  is  now 
Pearl  and  Hudson  streets,  and  very  near  the  present  location  of  the  residence 
of  Mr.  Frank  Treat.  This  was  a  frame  one-room  building  and  painted  red. 
It  was  called  as  long  as  it  stood  the  "  Red  School  House."  It  was  built  in 
1834.  but  when  it  ceased  to  be  used  as  a  schoolhouse  I  have  no  means  of 
learning.  Cynthia  Gloyd  was  probably  the  first  person  who  taught  here. 
A  man  bv  the  name  of  McWhorter  also  taught  for  some  time.  Mr.  L.  D. 
Haisted  recently  related  to  me  his  recollections  of  this  schoolhouse  and  the 
man  McWhorter.  One  circumstance  which  fixed  in  his  mind  the  man  wa.s, 
that  in  the  winter  of  1836  he  attended  a  singing  class  taught  in  the  school- 


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152  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

lioitse,  and  McWhorter  became  angry  because  he  was  compelled  to  «\veep 
up  the  room  after  the  sessions  of  the  sin^ng  class.  The  late  Harvey  Haynes 
also  taught  here  in  1838.  Here  the  children  of  the  pioneers  were  taught  the 
rudimeiits  of  such  an  education  as  they  were  able  to  acquire.  It  is  a  fact 
which  should  be  borne  in  mind  by  this  as  weli  as  subsequent  generations  that 
the  first  task  of  the  early  pioneers  of  this  city  was  to  provide  shelter  and 
food  for  their  families,  and  the  next  was  to  provide  shelter  and  teacher  for 
instruction  of  their  children. 

So  much  for  the  first  schools  and  those  originating  while  Michigan  was 
yet  a  territory.  Under  the  first  state  constitution  Rev.  John  D.  Pierce  was 
appointed  the  first  superintendent  of  public  instruction.  In  accordance  with 
a  vote  of  the  legislature  Mr.  Pierce  reported  to  that  body  in  January,  1837, 
a  code  of  school  laws,  which  was  adopted  with  but  little  change.  The  gen- 
eral plan  of  education  thus  established  is  the  foimdation  ujx)n  which  the. 
present  system  has  been  built. 

The  township  was  the  unit.  Each  township  had  three  school  inspectors, 
whose  duty  it  was  to  organize  school  districts,  to  apportion  the  school  moneys 
to  the  districts ;  to  examine  teachers  and  grant  certificates ;  and  to  appoint 
one  of  their  number  to  visit  the  schools  twice  a  year  and  to  make  an  annua! 
report  to  the  county  clerk.  These  boards  of  inspectors  continued  to  exercise 
control  over  the  schools  of  their  respective  townships  until  the  county  super- 
intendency  was  established  in  1867. 

Each  district,  however,  had  the  control  of  its  own  school.  A  district 
could  vote  a  tax  for  buildings,  not  to  exceed  five  hundred  dollars  in  any 
one  year.  Each  district  was  required  to  hold  school  at  least  three  months 
each  year.  Each  district  had  to  assess  a  tax  to  the  primary  school  fund 
apportioned  to  the  district,  and  if  the  teacher's  wages  exceeded  the  funds, 
the  board  could  assess  a  tax  to  meet  the  deficiency,  but  not  to  exceed  ninety 
dollars,  the  limit  fixed  by  law.  Also,  the  district  could  vote  ten  dollars  a 
year  for  a  library, 

it  was  soon  found  that  this  method  of  raising  school  revenues  by  district 
taxation  proved  insufficient  for  the  support  of  schools.  To  remedy  this  the 
legislature  pas.sed.  in  1843,  the  famous  "  rate  bill  "  law,  which  provided  that 
the  patrons  of  each  school  might  raise  the  funds  necessary  to  continue  the 
school  through  the  term.  The  parents  or  guardians  of  the  children  were 
assessed  a  tax  in  proportion  to  the  time  such  children  attended  school.  This 
rate  bill  was  made  out  by  the  teacher  at  the  close  of  each  term,  and  the  amount 
distributed  among  the  patrons.  The  law  did  not  work  well,  for  the  poor 
parents  or  those  indifferent  to  education  would  send  to  school  as  long  as  the 
public  funds  lasted,  and  when  the  rate  bill  set  in  would  take  their  children 
out.  Primary  education  thus  became  a  question  of  ability  to  pay  for  it,  and 
the  fundamental  principle  of  popular  education  was  threatened.  Neverthe- 
less, despite  the  inequality,  the  rate  bill  law  was  not  repealed  until  1869. 
Some  idea  of  the  working  of  this  rate  bill  law  may  be  gained  by  reference  to 
the  township  reports  for  1850.  The  report  from  Batavia  shows  that  district 
No.  S  raised  $62.65  on  the  rate  bill.     Estimating  the  teacher's  wages  at  the 


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HISTORY  O'F  BRANCH  COUNTY  153 

tlieii  prevailing  average  of  six  Hollars  a  month  for  a  woman  teacher  and 
thirteen  for  a  man.  it  will  be  seen  that  this  school  was  continued  for  several 
months  of  the  year  from  the  proceeds  of  the  rate  bill,  the  children  of  the 
jXHirer.  parents  probably  being  without  instruction  during  this  time.  In  the 
same  township  district  Nu.  2  raised  by  the  same  method  $43-14.  and  dis- 
trict No.  I,  $33.  In  Bronson  township  the  four  districts  raised  $184.06  in 
this  way,  and  the  six  districts  in  California  raiseil  $217. 

TTie  original  plan,  as  above  outlined,  contemplated  only  single  districts, 
■with  a  single  house,  and  but  one  teacher;  and  all  references  to  teacliers  and 
sites  were  in  the  singular  number.  But  as  the  population  increased  it  was  seen 
that  expediency  often  demanded  more  than  one  teacher,  and  sometimes  more 
than  one  schoolhouse  in  the  same  district.  The  township  board  under  these 
conditions  would  have  had  no  option  but  to  sub-divide  the  district  and  pro- 
vide for  two  or  more  separate  schools  in  the  original  district.  To  maintain 
several  adjacent  district  schools,  co-ordinate  in  work  and  rank,  was  evidently 
at  the  expense  of  efficiency  and  economy.  H'he  laws  were  therefore  amended 
so  as  to  permit  a  union  of  adjoining  districts  wherever  the  population  was 
sufficiently  dense  to  admit  of  bringing  a  large  number  of  children  into  one 
system  of  graded  schools,  without  embracing  too  much  territory  to  be  thus 
well  accommodated. 

Tiiis  was  the  origin  of  the  "  union  school "  in  Michigan.  The  true  sig- 
nificance of  the  term  had  reference  not  so  much  to  the  uniting  of  the  districts 
as  to  the  system  of  grading  which  resulted  from  the  union.  Tlie  real  mean- 
ing of  a  "union  school  "  was  therefore  a  graded  school,  located  in  the  more 
populous  communities,  with  one  central  schoolhouse,  having  several  differ- 
ent rooms  and  employing  several  different  teachers.  No  such  school  was 
established  in  Branch  county  until  the  decade  of  the  6ft!es.  and  the  organi- 
zation of  a  union  or  graded  school  marked  in  important  stage  in  the  devel- 
opment of  educational  institutions  in  each  of  the  villages. 

Ttie  genera]  supervision  and  control  of  the  sdiools  of  tlie  county  and 
townships  has  been  vested  by  the  legislature  in  difYerenf  bodies  at  various 
times.  The  township  board  of  inspectors  established  by  the  original  laws 
was  changed,  as  noted  above,  by  an  act  of  March  13.  1867.  which  created  the 
office  of  county  superintendent  of  schools.  Less  than  ten  years  later  this  act 
was  rei^ealed,  and  on  March  31.  1875.  the  law  took  effect  transferring  the 
control  once  more  to  the  township,  and  requiring  the  election  in  each  town- 
ship of  one  superintendent  of  schools  and  one  school  inspector.  The  town- 
ship superintendent  was  required  to  examine  teachers,  grant  certificates  and 
visit  the  schools  of  his  township  twice  a  year.  He  with  the  school  inspector 
and  the  township  clerk  constituted  the  board  of  school  inspectors  for  each 
township.  This  system  endured  for  a  number  of  years,  until  it  was  again 
thought  best  to  centralize  the  control  of  county  schools  in  one  office.  June 
JO,  1891,  the  law  still  in  effect  was  approved.  This  required  that  the  board 
of  supervisors  should  appoint  a  county  commissioner  of  schools  who  should 
hold  office  until  July  i,  1893,  at  which  time  the  commissioner  regularly 
elected  by  the  voters'  at  the  election  in   April   should  begin  his  duties.     At 


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154  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

the  same  ineeting  the  supervisors  were  to  appoint  two  school  examiners,  for 
one  and  two  year  terms  respectively,  and  the  board  should  thereafter  appoint 
one  examiner  at  each  annual  meeting.  The  county  commissioner  and  the 
two  examiners  constitute  the  board  of  school  examiners.  The  county  com- 
missioner has  general  oversight  of  the  schools  in  the  county,  being  required 
to  visit  each  school,  and  also  advises  with  the  board  of  school  inspectors  in 
each  township. 

As  soon  as  the  machinery  of  education  was  set  in  operation  by 
the  first  state  legislature;  the  various  townships  took  measures  to  form  dis- 
tricts and  conform  to  the  general  scheme  of  education.  The  existing  reports 
and  other  school  data  do  not  suffice  for  a  complete  account  of  the  status  of 
schools  in  1837,  but  it  will  be  of  interest  to  describe  conditions  as  far  as  pos- 
sible, tor  that  year  one  report  of  the  school  inspector  in  Ovid  township  has 
been  found.  In  this  it  is  stated  that  there  was  one  district  school  in  tlie 
township,  thirty-six  children  of  school  age  and  twenty-three  who  attended 
the  sessions  of  the  three  months'  term.  The  total  amount  raised  in  the  dis- 
trict was  eighteen  dollars,  which  went  to  pay  the  teacher.  This  no  doubt  was 
the  first  school  in  the  township,  but  no  further  information  is  given  concern- 
ing it.  This  also  indicates  an  error  in  the  History  of  1879,  in  which  it  is 
stated  that  Mr.  Parley  Stockwell,  who  came  to  the  township  as  !ate  as  1842, 
built  the  first  schoolhouse  and  taught  the  second  term  of  school  that  was  held 
therein.  It  is  probable  that  Mr.  Stockwell's  school  was  the  first  in  that  part 
of  the  township,  that  is,  at  Parlej''s  Comers  in  section  16. 

The  only  other  report  found  for  1837  relates  to  Butler  township.  No 
school  had  been  kept  there  during  the  year  but  there  were  twenty  children  of 
school  age  and  five  hundred  dollars  had  been  raised  for  a  schoolhouse.  This 
school  was  built  on  Shock's  Prairie,  and  during  the  winter  of  1838-39 
Charles  M.  Wisner  presided  as  the  first  teacher. 

Batavia  township  reported  in  1838  three  district  schools,  with  29,  46 
and  31  pupils  respectively,  and  the  total  amount  raised  by  taxation  in  the 
township  as  ninety  dollars.  TTie  record  pertaining  to  the  organization  of  two 
of  these  districts  will  be  found  quoted  in  the  former  history,  and  from  these 
it  is  seen  that  the  meeting  for  organization  of  district  No.  i  took  place  in 
May,  1836,  and  that  for  the  formation  of  No.  2,  in  December  of  the  same 
year. 

Each  township  established  one  or  more  schools  about  this  time.  As  is 
well  known,  although  the  settlement  of  Branch  county  had  hardiv  begun  in 
1830.  in  twenty  years  from  that  date  the  population  had  increased  to  a  stage 
from  which  there  has  been  only  moderate  changes  to  the  present  day.  The 
formation  of  schools  kept  pace  with  this  increase  of  population,  and  it  is 
unfortunate  that  the  records  of  this  period  of  growth  have  not  been  preserved, 
for  at  the  time  complete  statistics  are  available  the  school  iwpulation  and 
number  of  districts  had  reached  very  nearly  the  normal  figures. 

Thus  the  whole  number  of  children  included  in  the  school  census  of 
1905  was  6,505,  while  in  1855  the*  number  was  6.359.  While  the  school 
population  and  the  number  of  districts  has  remained  about  the  same,   the 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  155 

story  of  educational  growth  in  fifty  years  is  best  told  in  a  comparison  of 
the  money  expenditures.  Whereas  the  Primary  School  interest  apportioned 
for  the  year  1855  totaled  $3,383.23,  or  a  little  more  than  fifty  cents  to  the 
child,  in  1905  the  total  distributed  in  the  May  and  November  apportion- 
ments was  $21,466.50,  or  two  dollars  and  thirty  cents  to  the  child.  While 
population  has  remained  stationary,  wealth  has  increased  enormously.  The 
county  schools  in  1855  raised  nearly  $3,500  by  means  of  the  rate  bill,  in  addi- 
tion to  the  $2,500  raised  by  the  mill  tax.  At  the  present  time  some  of  the 
districts  support  their  schools  almost  entirely  throug-h  the  income  of  the  state 
fund. 

Fifty  years  ago  a  blackboard  was  the  extent  of  apparatus  in  most 
schools;  now  the  schools  in  the  majority  of  the  127  districts  in  the  county 
are  supplied  with  dictionaries,  globes,  maps,  and  the  scholars  have  access  to 
libraries  which  in  themselves  offer  advantag'es  unknown  to  the  children  of 
the  former  date. 

As  early  as  1868  the  state  superintendent  of  public  instruction  called 
attention  to  the  need  of  uniting  rather  than  dividing  districts.  He  showed 
the  waste  and  inefficiency  of  small  districts,  which  condition  continued  be- 
cause the  people  desired  to  have  a  schoolhouse  "  near  by,"  a  false  estimate 
being  placed  upon  the  value  of  a  home  school.  Since  then  conditions  have 
materially  changed.  Roads  are  better,  and  with  increased  facilities  of  trans- 
portation the  bounds  of  community  life  have  been  widened.  Tlie  interests 
of  the  people  are  more  closely  knit  tog^her,  and  old  fom^  of  individualism 
are  disappearing. 

The  movement  which  fifty  years  ago  resulted  in  the  formation  of  the 
first  "  union  schools  "  is  now  being  extended  to  the  rural  schools.  In  line 
with  this  direction  of  progress,  the  state  legislature  enacted  a  law  which  be- 
came effective  September  17,  1903,  permitting  the  transportation  of  pupils 
to  and  from  school  at  the  expense  of  the  districts  concerned.  This  is  per- 
haps the  most  important  legislation  of  recent  years  affecting  the  rural  schools. 
As  yet  the  people  of  Branch  county  have  not  taken  advantage  of  recent  leg- 
islation permitting  the  consolidation  of  school  districts  into  larger  districts 
comprehending  in  some  cases  an  entire  township,  with  a  central  graded  school 
accessible,  by  means  of  public  transportation,  to  all  the  pupils  in  the  district. 
As  the  county  school  commissioner,  Mr.  James  Swain,  has  said  in  his  report 
for  1905,  "  We  have  too  many  small  schools,  but  many  people  seem  to  be 
jealous  of  their  rights  and  are  very  slow  to  see  the  benefit  to  be  derived  from 
consolidation  of  schools." 

One  or  two  other  statements  from  the  county  commissioner's  report  may 
serve  as  a  basis  from  which  subsequent  developments  in  educational  affairs 
may  be  reckoned.  With  reference  to  the  study  of  agriculture  in  the  rural 
schools  he  says,  "  Agriculture  is  best  taught  by  practical  experiments,  and 
many  schools  have  placed  the  book  'Agriculture  for  Beginners',  in  their  li- 
brary, which  is  a  source  of  help  and  a  guide  for  the  boys  and  girls."  As  to 
manual  training,   it  "  has  reccivetl  attention  only   in  a  limited   way   in  the 


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156  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

rural  schools.  A  few  teachers  fee!  that  they  have  the  time  to  devote  at  least 
one  hour  each  week  to  the  subject" 

Another  subject  that  should  be  mentioned  in  a  history  of  the  Branch 
county  schools  is  that  concerning  compulsory  education.  Until  1905  the  law 
vested  the  power  to  compel  attendance  in  the  township  hoard,  the  chairman 
of  which  was  the  executive  officer  to  carry  the  law  into  effect.  Practically, 
it  was  optional  with  this  boarti  whether  the  law  should  be  enforced,  and  at 
best  the  board  could  require  the  child  to  attend  school  only  four  months  of 
sixteen  days  each,  or  sixty-fonr  days  in  the  entire  year.  Tliat  the  plan  was 
defective  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  in  1905  only  47  out  of  127  districts  in  the 
county  attempted  to  enforce  the  law. 

Beginning'  with  the  year  1905-06  a  new  law  became  operative.  Instead 
of  the  enforcement  of  the  law  being  left  with  each  township,  it  is  the  duty 
of  the  county  commissioner  of  schools  to  see  that  its  provisions  are  effective 
in  all  districts  throughout  the  entire  school  year.  The  executive  or  truant 
officer  is  a  deputy  sheriff  appointed  by  the  sheriff  and  acting  under  the  super- 
vision of  the  county  commissioner.  All  children  between  and  including  the 
ages  of  seven  and  fifteen  years  are  compelled  to  attend  school  so  long  as 
schools  are  in  session  in  their  district,  in  other  words,  for  the  entire  school 
year.  'The  only  exception  to  this  rule  are  children  excused  by  physician's 
certificate;  or  those  in  attendance  at  a  private  or  parochial  school  in  which 
the  same  grade  of  work  is  done  as  in  the  public  schools;  or  in  case  of  chil- 
dren over  fourteen  years  of  age  whose  labor  is  necessary  to  the  support  of 
the  family,  who  may  be  excused  from  attendance  with  the  unanimous  consent 
of  the  township  board  and  the  recommendation  of  the  county  commissioner. 

As  to  the  actual  workings  of  the  law  during  the  first  year  it  has  been  in 
effect,  County  Commissioner  Swain  states  that  no  difficulty  has  Jjeen  experi- 
enced in  enforcement  except  among  the  few  foreign  families  in  the  county. 
This  is  evidence  of  the  strong  sentiment  for  popular  education  in  the  county, 
and  it  is  no  weak  proof  of  the  prosperity  of  the  county  which  after  three 
quarters  of  a  century  of  growth  and  development  can  afford  to  provide  all 
the  means  of  primary  education  and  require  its  children  for  the  first  sixteen 
vears  of  their  lives  to  attend  school  an  average  of  eight  months  in  the  year. 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

EDUCATION  (CONTINUED). 

CoLDWATER  City  Schools. 

With  reference  to  the  schools  of  Coldwater  village  and  city.  Mr.  Legg, 
whose  article  has  Iweii  above  quoted  concerning  the  first  Coldwater  school- 
house,  continues  thus:  "  The  next  schoolhouse  was  built  on  a  part  of  the  lot 
No.  104  at  the  comer  of  Pear!  and  Clay  streets  on  land  largely  ownerl  by 
Dr.  I.  C.  Ives.  A  meeting  was  called  at  the  '  Exchange'  on  June  1,  1839,  at 
which  time  a  new  district  was  formed  designated  as  '  district  No.  11.'  This 
new  district  embraced  all  the  territory  north  of  Chicago  street  and  for  a 
mile  west  of  Marshall  street  and  extending  north  two  miles:  also  all  the  land 
on  section  21  lying  south  of  Chicago  street  and  west  of  Division  street. 
Tlie  officers  of  this  new  district  were :  Silas  A.  Holbrook.  moderator ;  Orse- 
mus  B.  Clark,  director;  Henry  Lockwood,  assessor.  At  a  meeting  cailetl 
and  held  eight  days  later,  the  district  board  was  authorized  to  purchase  a 
part  of  the  lot  mentioned  above  as  a  school  site  and  to  raise  money  to  con- 
struct a  building.  This  was  built  in  1839.  Mr.  Halsted  remembered  the 
building  well,  and  Mrs.  R.  M.  Wilder  attended  school  in  this  building  and 
remembers  seeing  it  being  moved  away  years  later.  It  is  not  probable  that 
this  building  w'as  used  as  a  schoolhouse  longer  than  about  ten  years,  as 
about  this  time  population  began  to  increase  very  rapidly  and  more  commodi- 
ous quarters  were  soon  demanded.  This  building  th«i  was  the  second  for 
school  purposes.  It  evidently  was  of  modest  proportions,  as  its  cost  must 
have  been  less  than  five  hundred  dollars.  The  district  contained  in  1839  but 
68  children  of  school  age.  In  the  following  year  the  number  increased  to 
93.  It  is  probable  that  the  late  Hiram  Shoudler  taught  here.  A  Mr.  Ethe- 
ridge  also  taught  here,  but  whether  tt  was  the  late  Burt  Etheridge  who  li-\-ed 
here  at  that  time,  or  Samuel  Etheridge  who  was  moderator  of  this  district 
in  1 84 1,  or  a  younger  man,  I  have  not  been  able  to  ascertain. 

"  The  next  school  building  in  order  of  construction  was  the  '  Old  White 
Schoolhouse '  as  called  in  later  years,  erected  on  the  present  site  of  the  sec- 
ond ward  building.  After  searching  the  files  of  the  Sentinel,  edited  by  the 
late  Albert  Chandler,  it  appears  that  this  building  was  erected  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1847.  The  dimensions  were  30  by  60  feet,  two  stories  high,  and  the 
contract  price  of  the  construction  was  $1,200.  During  two  or  three  years 
prior  to  this  time,  notices  of  political  meetings  and  other  assemblages  men- 
tioned the  '  White  Schoolhouse  '  as  the  place  of  meeting.  It  is  therefore  evi- 
dent that  the  schoolhouse  on  lot  104  at  the  corner  of  Pearl  and  Qay  streets 


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158  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

was  painted  white.  The  records  of  St.  Mark's  church  mention  a  meeting  at 
the  '  White  Schoolhouse,'  where  the  society  had  heretofore  held  stated  meet- 
ings, for  the  purpose  of  organizing  a  parish.  This  was  in  February,  1848, 
and  probably  refers  to  the  building'  on  lot  No.  104  rather  than  the  new 
building.  There  remain  quite  a  number  of  the  older  people  of  the  city  who 
attended  school  here  and  the  names  of  Mrs.  George  Holbrook,  John  Murphy, 
Mrs.  D.  H.  Davis.  Miss  Hadley,  L.  R.  Austin  and  others  are  remembered  as 
teachers  in  this  building.  The  first  county  fair  was  he!d  in  this  building  and 
on  the  adjoining  grounds.  It  served  the  purposes  of  a  schoolhouse  for  many 
years  an(>  was  finally  removed  to  the  comer  of  Chicago  and  Hudson  streets, 
where  it  was  occiipied  as  a  wagon  shop  until  finally  destroyed  by  fire. 

"  The  next  biiilding  erected  for  school  purposes  was  the  two-story  brick 
building  on  the  present  site  of  the  third  ward  building.  In  recent  years  of 
its  existence  it  was  commonly  known  as  the  '  Old  Brick.'  This  was  con- 
structed in  1848,  the  year  following  the  building  of  the  'Old  White.'  but  in 
district  1 1 .  The  movement  to  consolidate  the  two  districts  appears  not  to 
have  been  carried  into  effect  until  several  years  later.  This  building  con- 
tinued in  use  for  school  purposes  until  torn  down  in  1887  to  make  room  for 
the  present  third  ward  building.  In  this  building  the  late  D.  H.  Davis  taught 
for  several  years  while  it  remained  the  principal  school  of  the  city  before  the 
erection  of  the  Old  High  School.  One  of  the  teachers  whom  some  may 
recall  was  Miss  Parthenia  Havens.  A  man  by  the  name  of  Gibson  was  prin- 
cipal at  the  time  the  Old  High  School  building  was  afterwards  constructed, 
and  was  transferred  to  the  new-  building  as  its  first  principal.  The  late 
George  W.  Stevens,  as  well  as  his  wife,  taught  here  for  many  years  after 
Gibson  left." 

Mr.  Legg  has  referred  to  the  movement  to  consolidate  the  two  Cold- 
water  districts.  Some  facts  taken  from  Principal  D.  H.  Davis's  report  to 
the  superintendent  of  public  instruction,  dated  Jan.  16,  1858,  will  show  when 
this  consolidation  took  place  and  some  other  features  of  the  schools  at  that 
time.  "  Our  union  school,"  says  Mr.  Davis,  "  was  organized  in  September, 
1853.  It  embraces  two  school  buildings,  on  sites  distant  from  each  other 
one-haif  mile.  The  east  site  embraces  two  acres,  the  west  one  and  a  fourth 
acres.  The  school  has  no  apparatus  or  library.  We  have,  however,  a  town 
library  of  about  four  hundred  and  fifty  volumes,  to  which  the  pupils  have 
access.  The  number  of  teachers  at  present  employed  is  eight;  the  average 
number  of  students  the  past  year  was  about  three  hundred  and  fifty.  The 
num1)er  at  present  in  attendance  is  about  four  hundred  and  fifty.  After  con- 
siderable experience  I  am  of  the  opinion  that  the  co-eilucatinn  of  the  sexes  is 
decidedly  preferable  to  their  being  educated  sejrarately.  *  *  *  jYi^.  ex- 
penses of  the  school  are,  in  part,  met  by  a  rate  bill.  Perhaps  one-fifth  of  the 
expenses  are  paid  in  this  way.  *  *  *  Our  union  school  organization 
has  from  the  first  encountered  considerable  opposition,  and  T  am  not  pre- 
pared to  say  that  the  views  and  feelings  of  our  citizens  are  as  yet  quite  united 
and  harmonious  in  its  favor." 

"  The  building  about  which  cluster  the  memories  of  the  school  davs  of 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  159 

the  early  and  older  alumni,"  continues  Mr.  Legg,  "  was  the  first  Union  or 
High  School  so-called,  erected  in  1861  on  the  site  of  the  present  high  school 
buikiing.  It  was  dedicated  by  public  exercises  held  in  the  auditorium  on 
Saturday  evening,  February  i,  1862.  This  was  an  imposing  structure, 
and  contained  thirteen  rooms,  as  I  remember,  including  the  two  recitation 
rooms  adjacent  to  the  high  school  room  so-called.  The  rooins  were  high, 
the  stairways  were  long,  and  by  the  time  students  attained  the  third  floor 
it  was  time  to  rest. 

"  This  building  was  the  home  of  most  of  the  members  of  the  Alumni 
Association  in  their  school  days.  It  was  unfortunately  constructed  for 
school  purposes,  being  high  and  difficult  to  climb  and  dangerous  perhaps  to 
descend.  I  am  egotistical  enough,  however,  to  believe  that  few  if  any  high 
schools  in  the  state  have  afforded  better  or  more  efficient  instruction.  Janu- 
ary 19,  1890,  in  the  later  hours  of  the  night,  when  the  building  fortunately 
was  unoccupied,  it  v/as  completely  destroyed  by  fire,  including  most  of  the 
school  records  and  books,  and  the  books  of  the  students." 

May  5,  i8go.  the  city  voted  a  new  school  building,  only  twenty  adverse 
votes  being  recorded  against  the  proposition.  Tiie  large  Lincoln  school 
building,  which  is  one  of  the  architectural  features  of  the  city,  was  accepted 
as  completed  by  the  board  of  education  on  July  9,  i8i9i,  and  since  that  time 
it  has  been  in  use  throughout  the  school  years.  As  large  as  is  this  building, 
it  is  crowded  to  full  capacity,  and  in  a  short  time  additional  room  will  have 
to  be  provided  either  in  the  shape  of  a  new  high  school  building  separate 
from  the  grades  or  some  other  combination  of  facihties. 

Of  the  ward  schools,  the  fourth  ward  building  was  erected  in  1867  and 
has  been  in  continual  use  as  a  ward  building  since.  The  present  second 
ward  school  was  built  in  the  summer  of  18S3. 

Of  school  life  forty  years  ago.  Mr.  Leg^  says:  "  In  those  years  ath- 
letics cut  a  slight  figure.  There  was  no  base  ball,  foot  ball  nor  field  days  for 
the  display  of  physical  prowess.  Considerable  attention  was  given  to  lit- 
erary exercises  and  as  I  believe  to  the  great  advantage  of  the  students.  Two 
literary  societies  in  the  high  school  'alternated  in  giving  Friday  afternoon 
exercises,  and  considerable  rivalry  existed  between  them.  Charles  S.  War- 
burton  was,  for  a  greater  part  of  the  time  he  was  a  student  in  the  high 
school,  president  of  one  of  these  societies  until  he  left  to  complete  his  educa- 
tion at  Evanston,  Illinois.  He  was  a  persistent  fighter  and  debater— ele- 
ments of  his  personal  character  which  have  been  the  key  to  his  success  in 
after  life.  He  is  now  a  resident  of  Springfield,  Mass.,  a  director  of  the 
Massachusetts  Mutual  Life  Insurance  Co.,  having  charge  and  control  of  the 
loans  of  that  company,  amounting  to  many  millions  of  dollars.  Among  the 
students  of  those  days  who  were  active  in  the  literary  societies  were :  R.  F. 
Tinkham,  Frank  Sherman,  Cad  White,  Amos  Jennings,  W.  V.  W,  Davis, 
Anna  Chandler,  Celia  Parker,  Franc  Wendell,  Eliza  Benton,  and  others 
equally  active  whom  I  do  not  now  recall." 

It  was  on  June  30,  1866,  that  the  nucleus  of  the  present  Alumni  Associ- 
ation was  formed  under  the  name  of  "  The  Retmion  Society  of  the  Cold- 


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160  HISTO'RY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

water  High  School."  The  first  officers  elected  were  Charles  N.  Legg,  pres- 
ident: R.  F.  Tinkham,  vice  president;  Ahce  Adams,  secretary;  NeHie  Dib- 
ble, treasurer.  All  of  these  are  living.  Alice  Adams  later  became  the  wife 
of  Prof.  George  E.  Church,  and  Nellie  Dibble  the  wife  of  Norton  F...  Cham- 
pion. In  addition  to  the  officers  a  committee  of  arrangements  was  appointed 
consisting  of  Miss  Franc  Wendell,  Mr.  Hastings,  Laura  A.  Warren,  and 
George  A.  Coe,  Jr.  A  committee  on  constitution  and  rules  comprised  C.  M. 
White,  Charles  T.  Allen  and  Eliza  Benton. 

The  alumni  of  the  Coldwater  high  school  from  1868  to  the  present  year 
are  as  follows : 

186S— Eliza  Benton,  Chas.  N.  Leg'g.  R.  F.  Tinkham. 

1869— *Anna  M.  Chandler,  Alice  L.  Rose  (Mains).  *Frank  L.  Sher- 
man, IJbbie  E.  Townsend  (Inland),  Mary  L.  Wright  (Meyers). 

1870 — ^Florence  J.  Bums  (Howd),  Mary  E.  Bums  (Mcl-aughlin). 
*Eliza  Day,  George  L.  Harding,  Carrie  L.  Perry  (Towne),  Augusta  E. 
Rose  (Burr),  *Merritt  Sherman,  A.  M.  Steams,  *P!iny  W.  Titus,  Homer 
B.  Walling. 

1871— Kittie  M.  Cutter  (Buggie).  Milo  D.  Campbell.  M.  L,  Dakin 
(  Campbell ) . 

i872^Celia  Cohen,  Byron  S.  Spofford,  *Dora  S.  Titus. 

1873— Eva  M.  Abbott.  Frank  R.  Cook.  *Allie  E.  Hudson  (Drake), 
Albert  J.  Norton,  *Sarah  E.  Warne,  Hattie  E.  Wright  (Ingram). 

1874 — John  W.  Barron,  Lillian  M.  Burdick  (Galloway),  Anna  S. 
French  (Young),  H.  Clarence  Loveridge,  Eva  L.  Tinkham  (Seaman), 
*Cora  I.  Townsend,  Rose  E.  Wade  (Dickinson).  Andrew  J.  Wh^telieat], 

1875 — Eva  A.  Ball  (Martin),  *Wa)lace  A.  Demarest,  Jennie  M.  Dick- 
inson (Bishop),  Emma  Kritchbaum  (Quay),  Lillah  M.  Mockridge  (Van- 
derhoof),  Ella  E.  Murphey,  *Henry  C.  Stafford,  Belle  Whittaker  (Alex- 
ander). 

1876— Belle  J.  Culver  (Shinn).  I^wis  F.  Culver,  Birdie  L.  Cutter 
(Pratt),  Nellie  L.  Driggs,  *Judson.  P.  Etheridge.  Nellie  H,  Ferguson 
(Evans),  Fred  W.  Fonda,  Mary  O.  Hyde,  Flora  Oakley  (Jaynes),  Alice  C. 
Perkins  (Kerr),  Ella  V.  Perkins  (Taylor),  Jessie  D.  Pope  (Sawyer).  Julius 
Rodman,  Dell  Root  (Howard).  Maggie  C.  Upson  (Clarke). 

1877 — ^*Annie  L.  Alden  (Sampson),  Albert  A.  Allen,  Lizzie  M.  Bur- 
nett, Clara  E.  Bushnell  (Castle),  Florence  A.  Cornell  (Palmer),  Mattie  A. 
Griraiell  (Green),  Hattie  L.  Grove  (Wurtz).  Allie  Mansfield  (Cunning- 
ham), C.  Burdett  Sawyer.  Norton  D.  Walling,  Etta  A.  Warne  (Hathaway), 
Edwin  K.  Whitehead,  Leilah  G.  Woo<!ward. 

1878 — Florence  E.  Buck,  *Ida  E.  Burrows  (Calkins),  Frances  E 
Chandler  (ElHs),  Ralph  F.  Clarke.  L.  Belle  Cogshall  (Barnard),  *Hattie 
E.  Demarest  (Schrontz),  I.^ura  M.  Halsted  (Dunn),  *Flora  T.  Hyde, 
Mary  E.  Ketcham  (Crippen),  Mary  E.  Lockwood  (I..ockwood),  *CIara' m! 
Murphey,  Ida  L.  Newton,  Emma  L.  Perkins  (Edgerton),  Emma  L,  Purin- 

*Dec  eased. 


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HISTORY  O'F  BRANCH  COUNTY  161 

ton  (Howe),  Fannie  G.  Shaw  (Streeter),  Belle  Stevenson,  William  Streeter, 
Mae  C.  Warren  (Parker),  *Herbert  J.  Williams,  Harry  P.  Woodward. 

i879~Floyd  Bellamy,  Henr>'  Bradley,  Delia  Buffham  (Potter),  *Mary 
Burt  (Schrontz),  Mary  Button  (Johnson),  Lilla  Carletoo  (Hatch),  Sue 
Everett  (Cot*),  Delia'  Filkins  (Osband).  *Mary  Fonda  (Beebe),  Eva 
Haynes  (Snover),  Ella  Ludwig,  *Belle  Mansell.  Willis  Phinney,  Maggie 
Parkhurst   (Morey),  Fannie  Rose,  Ettie  Twadell,  M.  J.  Withington. 

1880— Mae  Bradlev.  John  S.  Evans,  Philip  Gilbert,  Sarah  Hanburg 
(Cody),  *Rufie  A.  Jordan  (Blake),  Clarence  Vincent. 

1881 — Fanny  Andrews  (Goodjon),  Edson  P.  Bradley,  *Ethel  Snyder, 
John  T.  Starr.  *Minnie  Tinkham. 

i8S2--*Mable  Clarke  (Worcester),  Juno  Edmonds  (Conover),  Nettie 
l~isher  (Baldwin),  Warren  French,  Mary  Gruner  (Mitchell),  Belle  Kerr 
(Cudner),  Flora  Moss  (Jackson),  WilHs  H.  Osborn,  Cora  Styles  (Hmn- 
plirey),  Carmi  Smith,  Blanche  Vincent. 

1883 — Elmer  J.  Allen,  Mamie  Boc^lass  (Sayks),  Cora  Crippen  (Kel- 
ly), J.  Amanda  Davis  (VanNess),  Adda  Filkins  (Breed),  Clayton  C.  John- 
son, Harry  King,  Eva  Nye  (Myers). 

1884 — Carrie  Adams,  Cora  L.  Allen,  Flora  Burr  (Shaffmaster),  Nina 
Clark,  Mary  Crippen  (Buttrick),  Edith  E.  Holbrook,  Cora  Lee  (Osborne), 
Jessie  F.  Marshall  (Woodward),  Lizzie  Orr,  *Stel]a  Rosenbauni,  Linnie 
Sanford  (Parker),  Jennie  Vincent  (Nettleman),  I^ura  E.  Whitley 
(Moore). 

1885 — Flora  Barnes  (Gallaher).  Charles  U.  Champion,  James  Smith 
Chandler,  Ida  Engle,  Nettie  E.  Filkins,  Georgia  Fisher,  *Orson  Fonda, 
Florence  E.  Munson  (Nason),  Minnie  Painter  (Howe),  Mabel  Randall, 
*I^Iattie  R.  Robinson,  Mary  Whitten. 

1886 — Inez  Bell,  Aggie  Brown  (Wise),  Eva  Engle,  Charles  F.  Howe, 
George  S.  Lee,  Maud  Paddock  (Lee),  Lottie  Rawson  (Hawes),  Elizabeth 
Wallace  (Cogshall). 

18S7— L.  Dell  Gripman,  Arthur  G.  Holbrook,  John'  T.  Holbrook,  Car- 
rie V.  Ingram  (George),  Jennie  M.  Lind  (Gripman),  Will  S.  Lockwood, 
Minnie  A.  Nivison,  Jesse  F.  Orton,  *Edwin  M.  Reynolds,  Mabel  Tliorpe 
( Jones) . 

1888 — Anna  M.  Coombs  (Moore),  M-'ilHam  Smith  Chandler,  *Burr 
Fairbanks,  Ella  L.  Fisher,  *Harriet  Ives,  *Sarah  Ives,  *Della  Saxton,  Mabel 
Smith  (Biery),  Cora  Taggart  (Westfall),  Maude  B.  Wheeler  (Champion), 
Eliza  M.  Young  (Weaver). 

1889 — *Len9  Amner  (Gowciv),  *Kate  Bishop,  Carl  Brundage,  Ralph 
Drake,  tida  GiUett  (Bixler),  Edwin  D.  Hoyt,  Lola  Paddock,  Ida  M.  Rob- 
lee  (Van  Aken),  Anna  Seely,  George  C.  Turner,  Edward  T.  Waffle. 

T890 — Qara  M.  Bennett,  Maud  E.  Chestnut  (Stebbins),  Ruth  H. 
Crippen,  David  N.  Gillett.  W.  Edwin  Hodgman,  Florence  M.  Holmes, 
Nathaniel  L.  Holmes,  *Michael  E.  Keely,  *Maud  L.  Milnes  (Burnell), 
Edna  L.  Paddock,  Helen  L.  Randall  (Kidder),  Hari-y  W.  Simons,  Rose  E. 
Sweet  (Smith). 


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162  _  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

1891— Mabel  Aldrich  (Griffin).  William  I.  Aldricli.  George  W.  Bar- 
ron, Mary  Esther  Bowers  (Olds),  Nellie  F.  C.  Bray  (Bennett).  Carrie  H. 
F,g^leston,  Maude  Lucile  Eggleston,  Thomas  Fofman  Ewing,  Olive  Blanch 
Lind,  William  Henry  Milnes.  Frank  Bernard  Reynolds,  Effie  I^s  Roberts 
(Luedders).  Byron  Clement  Thorpe,  Cora  Blanch  Thorpe  (Spotts),  Lottie 
E.  Weidy.  Myrtle  Enola  Woodcox  (Stevens). 

1892 — Reg-ena  E.  Bates  (Corless),  Hella  B.  Bixler  (Lee),  Harrison 
W.  Brodhead,  *Harriette  E.  Brown,  Mary  Louise  Brown  (Bingham),  E.  Vir- 
ginia Ewing  (Pitcher),  Florence  E.  Hiatt,  Bertha  Hilton  (Mason),  Jessie 
E.  Ives,  *Thomas  B.  Lee,  Esther  C.  Paddock,  Leroy  Palmer.  Edith  Irene 
Root  (Calkins),  *Charles  Coville  Shearer,  Louise  AdeJle  Spaulding 
(Miines),  Georgiana  L.  Starr,  *L.  Dudley  Stevens,  Lizzie  M.  Stevens 
(Campbell),  Ralph  R.  Stoddard. 

1893 — Nathan  E.  Barlow,  Nettie  C.  Bate,s,  Everett  D.  Brodhead, 
Charles  J,  Chubb,  Dollie  N.  Cosper  (Morey),  Leon  L.  Goodnow,  Floy  Hun- 
gerford,  F.  Eo!a  Kerr,  Charles  C.  King,  Fanny  C.  King  (Mafbone).  Dora 
Maxon,  F.  Maud  Pratt,  Jessie  M.  Styles  (Cross),  Mayme  A.  Williams 
(Fletcher). 

i894^NelIie  M.  Burk,  Celia  Belle  Bums  (Oxenham),  Howard  Brod- 
head, Jr.,  Kate  Eemice  Conover,  Edna  Adelle  Cummings,  *Clarence  G. 
Dickey,  Harriet  E.  Estlow  (Randolpb),  Harlow  J.  Evans,  Lola  Adelle  Fair- 
banks, Myrtle  Elizabeth  Filkins,  Fred  H.  Harris,  Minnie  Chandler  Hawks, 
Albert  Curriden  Howe,  Alva  M.  Hungerford,  Horace  Kitchel,  *Clayton  B. 
LangweSl,  Cecelia  Adeline  Miines  (Turner),  Myrtle  K.  Montague,  Grace 
Newberry  (Kitchel),  Elizabeth  H.  Paddock,  Minnie  E.  Pollock  (Brown), 
Frank  Ira  Post,  Nina  Rosamond  Spaulding  (Turner),  LaVeme  W.  Spring, 
William  J.  Sweeney. 

1895 — Gertrude  Anna  Baxter  (Brock),  *Adeibert  Guy  Bender,  .*Ai- 
meda  Maud  Black,  Ella  Porter  Bowen  (Hudson),  Marietta  Bvirdette,  Fran- 
cis Xavier  Busch,  Grace  Homan  Dennis  (Barlow).  Eber  Ward  Farwell, 
George  W.  R.  Ferguson,  Nellie  Mae  Hiatt,  Volney  R.  Hungerford.  Vanchie 
Parks  Moses,  Bertha  Louise  Nixson,  BeuJah  Grace  Palmer  (Manning),  Ma- 
bel Julia  Perry.  Charles  Milton  Perry,  Bertha  V.  Sitter  (Bowerman),  Evelyn 
Fernica  Squires,  Clara  Louise  Thompson,  Guy  A.  Thurston,  Carl  Yaple. 

1896 — Daisy  Gathel  Allen  (Tift),  Stanislaus  J.  Bounavicz,  Josephine 
M.  Brown  (Warner),  Sarah  Gertrude  Chubb,  Leon  Bennett  Clark,  Eliza- 
beth Eugenie  Compton,  Louis  Jerome  Compton,  Sarah  Belle  DePue 
(Straight),  *Carlton  L-eroy  Gorman,  Emily  E.  Hungerford,  Josie  Margar- 
ite  Keetey,  Margaret  Louise  Maloney,  Anna  Marie  Monroe  (Thurston), 
Mamie  B.  Nixon  (Johnson),  Grace  Aima  Smith  (Vernon),  Lena  L.  Teach- 
out  (Gruner),  Orton  AJonzo  Turner,  Nina  Roxana  Walker  (Holz). 

1897— Lyle  D.  Balcom.  Burt  E.  Barlow,  Clifford  Allen  Bishop,  E.  R. 
Clarke,  Jr.,  Jessie  Ethel  Corless,  Joseph  Thomas  Deuser,  Emery  Jennings 
Doerr.  Rollin  Lawrence  Drake.  Lela  EHza  Dustman  (Sherwood),  Kittie 
May  Eligh,  Claude  D.  Filkins,  Hervey  Canfield  Fisk,  Frank  Willis  French, 
Rua  Ethelind  Greenamyer,  Edith  Hazel  Holt   (Mannerow),  Blanche  Hutch- 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  163 

ins,  Verna  Mae  Kerr,  Margaret  Ang-ella  Lilly  (Clare).  Bertha  Mae  Morgan, 
Clarence  Lee  Morrison,  Max  E.  Neal,  Carrie  Mae  Olmsted  (Sweet),  Carl 
Byron  Paddock.  Alice  Amanda  Patterson  (Goble),  Myrtie  E.  Phillips  (Bur- 
nett), Ella  Belle  Quimby  (Bassett).  J.  Gordon  Spofford,  Eva  Lena  Spring 
(Herrick),  Iva  Leona  Thompson,  Ciara  S.  Warsabo  (Haynes),  Clark  Wil- 
son Williams. 

1898 — Maggie  Lulu  Anderson  (Miller),  Paul  Barnhart.  Nina  Barron, 
A.  Frederick  Bruehl,  Mabel  Burk.  C.  Elizabeth  Coombs  (Saunders),  Alta 
Lorene  Coppin  (Robbins),  Merle  Evelin  Darrow,  D.  Duella  Dickey,  Esther 
Clarina  Dimond.  Delsie  Dorena  Dubendorf  (Cook),  Roy  Kerr  Eldridge, 
T\Iabei  Ariean  Ewing  (McCrackai),  *Mattie  Maude  Freeman,  Lloyd  C. 
Greenamyer,  B.  lone  Gripman  (Tripp),  C.  Vernon  Hathaway,  Flora  E.  Hil- 
ton (Fellman),  Edmund  George  Johnson,  Agnes  Anna  Lilly,  Robert  E.  Lee, 
F.  Edith  Miner  (Russell).  Owen  Bayard  Parham,  Ethelyn  Gertrude  Simons, 
C.  Steele  Spofford,  Myrtle  Irene  Thornton. 

1899 — Grace  W.  Barron,  Marie  Elizabeth  Blye  (Perine),  Frederick 
Starr  Buggie,  Carolyn  M.  Chubb  (Baker),  Harriett  Bernice  Cooley,  Edith 
Joyce  Goodman.  Jennie  Berdenah  Hickey,  Louis  Alton  Hutchins.  Nellie 
Ethelyn  Jones,  Elsie  AlMayda  Long,  Arthur  George  Lyon,  Jessie  Harriet 
Paddock,  Kathleen  Pratt,  Charlotte  S.  Ray,  Harriette  G.  Yesner. 

1900— Bertha  M.  Basselt,  Mabel  A.  Black,  Hugh  Wallace  Clarke, 
Bertha  R,  Cook,  Florence  Rena  Cooley,  Lois  Maude  Cowell,  Ralph  Norton 
Conkhn.  Frank  Meek  Hiatt,  Louise  Margaret  Hoyt  (Hamilton),  Rachel  E. 
Ladd,  Lewis  Henry  Osborn.  Jessie  M.  Pollock,  Eliatheda  Spofford,  Mabel 
Ellen  Smith.  Leon  Clarence  Yapp. 

igoi — Joel  Martin  Barnes,  Archibald  Lamont  Chubb,  Rolla  Stuart  Da- 
vis, Laura  Edgerton  Hughes,  Josie  Belle  Molby,  George  Adelbert  Morrison, 
Mary  Elizabeth  Phinney,  Winnie  May  Sawin,  Ezra  Collin  Shoecraft,  Marv 
Julia  Simons,  *Charles  Sumner  Stuart,  Jr.,  Fred  George  Wahl. 

igo2 — Helen  Louise  Baldwin  (Shoecraft),  Mariet  Margaret  Buggie, 
Jessie  Helena  Cameron,  Mara  Watrous  Conover,  Louise  Qizbe,  Angeline 
Marion  Dean,  Don  Dewey,  Herbert  Eldridge,  Grace  Houghton  Fuller,  Carl 
Henry  Goodwin,  Carrie  Parham,  Rolene  Alta  Root,  Abishai  J.  Sanders, 
Archie  Sanders,  Mabel  Victoria  Sinclair,  Alice  Eleanor  Southworth.  Will- 
iam Stroh,  Roland  George  Swaffield,  Montie  B.  Taylor,  Elmina  Coe  Thomp- 
son, J.  Garfield  Upp,  Lena  Elizabeth  Weage,  Mabel  Yesner. 

1903 — Robert  Russell  Burdick,  Glenn  Danford  Bradley,  Flora  May 
Barnard,  Anna  Bishop,  Alma  Agnes  Cooley,  Bert  MHlson  Culver.  Amy 
Dimond,  Edna  May  Evans,  Robert  George  Evans,  Perry  William  Flander^- 
mcyer,  Dorlesca  Cordelia  Howe,  Mabelle  Louise  Holmes,  Edith  Alice  I-en- 
nox,  Olive  Beatrice  Lennox,  Arthur  Edward  Legg,  Mary  May  Macdonough 
(Wahl),  Harriet  Pratt,  Flora  Elizabeth  Root,  Marie  Beatrice  Ronan,  Rex 
Cameron  Starr,  Alice  Elizabeth  Vincent,  Sarah  Caroline  Worcester. 

1904— Carrie  Barnard,  Rolene  Chandler  (Cummins),  Guy  Chiesman, 
Reo  Gripman.  Ray  Keeslar  Imniel,  Lucile  Jones,  Satie  Keep,  Harry  Kemp- 
ster,  Jessie  Lawton,  Rav  Locke,  Jessie  Thurston,  Myrtle  White. 


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16f  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

T905— Harriet  N.  Evans,  Mabel  Gripman,  Wava  Junk,  Lou  Kramer, 
Ethel  Kerr,  Rache!  MacGowan.  Btirr  Osbom,  Burt  Pitcher,  Philip  Robinson, 
Pear!  Schrontz,  Eleanor  Stowell,  George  Wicker. 

1906— Norah  Jane  Carroll,  Rena  Marguerite  Clark,  Fern  Anchore 
Doerr,  Harold  Lewis  George,  Grace  I-eona  Gray,  Earl  Ostrander  Immel, 
Grayson  Thomas  Kinney,  Frank  Gardner  I-egg.  Ray  Howland  Lockwood, 
Marv  Grace  Rawson,  Harold  Arthur  Robinson,  Tsabelie  Ellen  Ronan,  Mary 
Merle  Schmedlen,  Constance  Stratton,  Ethel  Leone  Stroh,  William  Embry 
White. 

QuiNCy  Schools. 

The  first  school  held  at  the  center  of  Qiiincy  township  and  attended  by 
the  children  of  persrais  now  Hving  in  Quincy  village  was  taught  by  Mrs. 
Peter  Newberry  at  her  home  north  of  town.  Mrs.  E.  B.  Church  and  ■ 
Jerome  Clizbe  are  the  only  ones  of  her  scholars  still  living.  Tlie  first  school- 
house  erected  was  of  logs  and  stood  on  the  site  of  the  depot  grounds.  After 
about  four  or  five  years  the  log  house  was  torn  down  and  a  frame  school- 
house  put  up  in  its  place.  In  a  few  years  the  district  became  so  lar^e  that 
one  schoolhouse  would  not  accommodate  all  the  pupils,  so  a  private  school 
was  organized  in  1844,  with  Mrs.  Bundy  as  teacher.  When  the  railroad 
was  built,  in  1850.  the  schoolhouse  was  moved  to  where  the  Methodist  church 
now  stands,  on  West  Chicago  street.  The  Methodist  church  obtained  this 
site  about  1854.  and  the  schoolhouse  was  moved  to  Jefferson  street.  On 
this  occasion  quite  an  argument  arose  as  to  whether  the  building  should  be 
moved  east  or  west,  so  the  people  who  lived  in  the  west  part  of  the  district 
hitched  their  oxen  to  the  west  side  of  the  building,  and  those  in  the  east  part 
hitched  their  oxen  to  the  east  side.  When  all  were  ready  the  spectators  cried, 
"  Pull  long!  Pull  strong!  "  and  the  building  moved  to  the  east,  thus  decid- 
ing the  question. 

The  district  had  grown  so  large  noiw  that  the  frame  building  and  Mrs. 
Bundy's  select  school  would  not  accommodate  all,  and  another  select  school 
was  organized,  in  1854,  to  accommodate  the  older  pupils.  Tliis  was  taught 
by  a  Mr.  Watkins  and  was  the  first  graded  school  in  the  district.  Two  years 
later  the  district  decided  to  buiid  another  schoolhouse.  This  building  was  of 
brick,  located  on  the  corner  of  East  Jefferson  and  Fulton  streets,  on  the  site 
still  occupied  by  the  central  school  building.  The  old  frame  building  which 
had  so  long  served  the  purposes  of  a  school  was  sold  to  Jonas  Culver,  who 
moved  it  away  and  converted  it  into  a  dwelling. 

The  Union  school  mo\'ement  described  on  a  previous  page  was  now  tak- 
en up  by  the  people  of  Quincy. 

In  1869  the  first  brick  building  was  remodeled.  The  front  portion  of  the 
present  building  was  erected  as  an  addition  to  the  old  structure.  This  addi- 
tion stands  to-day,  but  in  1904  the  part  that  had  stoo^l  since  1858  and  in 
which  children  and  children's  children  and  even  grandchildren  had  learned 
their  first  lessons,  was  torn  down,  and  replaced  by  a  large  and  convenient  ad- 
dition at  a  cost  of  about  ten  thousand  dollars.    Thus  the  school  building  in 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  1^5 

use  at  the  present  writing  is  a  coinbination  of  the  old  and  tlie  new  in  school 
architectnre,  the  front  part,  surmounted  bv  the  cupola,  dating  back  to  1869 
and  the  south  side  of  the  biiilding  being  only  two  years  old. 

The  Quincy  high  school  maintains  the  high  standard  of  Michigan  high 
schools,  is  on  the  approved  list  of  the  State  lTm\'ersity  and  the  State  Normal, 
and  its  influence  as  an  institution  is  shown  by  the  ties  which  bind  its  alumni 
together  and  the  pride  the  people  in  general  manifest  in  the  work  of  local 
education.  The  superintendent  of  the  schools  is  F.  E.  Knapp,  and  his  assist- 
ants in  the  upper  grades'  work  are  Amelia  Todd,  Ethe!  Fok  and  Jennie 
Burns.  The  board  of  education  at  this  writing  consists  of  these  citizens: 
K.  B.  Etheridge,  president ;  VV.  H.  Lockerby,  secretary ;  F.  A.  McKenzie, 
treasurer;  A.  L.  Bowen  and  M.  J.  Rawson,  trustees. 

The  Alumni  Association  of  the  Quincy  high  school  was  formed  July 
5,  :884,  its  first  officers  being:  Miss  Gertie  Dobson,  president;  Dr.  Will 
Marsh,  vice  president,  and  Samuel  J.  Gier,  secretary  and  treasurer.  The 
associations  of  early  years  have  been  renewed  at  each  subsequent  annual 
meeting,  and  the  ties  that  form  the  basis  of  such  an  organization  are  such  that 
the  names  of  its  members  as  they  have  been  added  from  year  to  year  are  the 
most  important  document  in  the  school's  history. 

As  compiled  from  the  records  of  the  Alumni  Association,  the  classes 
from  1876  to  the  present  are : 

1876 — A.  V.  R.  Pond;  W.  C  Marsh,  a  graduate  of  the  University  of 
Michigan's  medical  department,  practicing  in  Quincy  a  few  years,  and  now 
a  prominent  physician  of  Albion.  Mich.;  R.  Upton  Gay. 

1880 — Carrie  Clark,  Cora  Clizbe.  Livonia  Rogers,  May  Wilson,  May 
Collins.  Adda  Culver. 

1882 — Maude  Joseph ;  Gertie  Dobson,  a  teacher  in  Quincy  schools  for 
a  long  time,  later  a  department  teacher  in  Mt.  Pleasant  (Mich.)  Normal, 
and  now  studying  medicine  in  Rush  Medical  College;  Jessie  E.  Cook; 
Howard  J.  Hill,  formerly  a  dentist  at  Alma,  Nebraska,  where  he  has  been 
successful  in  business  and'  has  now  given  up  practice. 

1883 — Joie  Golden,  Elsie  Babcock,  Adda  .Archer,  Cora  E  Brown,  Hu- 
bert Jo.seph. 

1884 — Blanche  Daggett:  Samuel  J.  (jier,  now  superintendent  of  the 
Hillsdale  city  schools;  John  B.  Daish.  an  attorney  at  Washington,  D.  C. ; 
Claude  Larzelere.  who  graduated  from  the  University  of  Michigan,  took  a 
post-graduate  course  at  Harvard,  and  is  now  head  of  the  history  depart- 
ment of  Mt.  Pleasant  Normal. 

18S5 — Rena  S,  Barber,  the  wife  of  Prof.  Larzelere  just  mentioned; 
Grace  Markel,  Orcelia  Marshall.  Grace  M.  Lytle,  Ida  M.  Wilcox,  Ella  D. 
Sweeney;  Ida  A.  Macklem  and  Franc  M.  Macklem,  both  teaching  in  the  Elk- 
hart schools. 

1886— Rena  B.  Wright,  Minnie  M.  Rathbun,  Minnie  M.  Myers,  Charles 
L.  Van  Orsdal. 

1887— Gertie  Blackman,  Florence  Mann,  Hattie  Swan,  Allierta  Hoff- 
man, Vieva  Wilcox.  Atita  Pratt,  Estella  Sanderson,  Orlo  Dobson. 


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166  filSTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

1888 — Lillian  Bigneli,  the  only  graduate  of  that  year,  is  now  svii>erin- 
tendent  of  the  schools  at  Galesburg',  Mich. 

1889 — ^Justus  G.  Lawson,  a  prominent  attorney  at  Grand  Rapids:  J. 
Harry  Nichoh,  J.  Whitney  Watkins,  Charles  L,  Wood. 

1891 — Matie  Decker.  Phi  Berry.  Pearl  Kinyon,  Lena  Berr\-,  Ralph 
Turner,  Ed.  Crevie. 

1892 — Jessie  C.  Mason,  Alice  C.  Ethridge,  Allen  J.  Talent,  Azalia  M. 
Drake,  Nettie  M.  Ba!!,  Percy  L.  Freeman. 

i8q3— Charles  W.  Morey,  an  electrical  engineer  in  Chicago ;  Ethel 
Noble,  T.  Howard  Hyslop,  Blanche  Baker.  Georgia  M.  Turner,  Fred  J, 
Rathbun,  Cora  M,  Blackman,  Hattie  L.  Denham. 

t8<)4 — Charles  Harpham,  now  a  member  of  the  faculty  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  Michigan;  Arthur  Bellis,  a  graduate  of  the  University  of  Michigan, 
and  now  superintendent  of  schools  at  Birmingham,  this  state ;  James  Bellis, 
a  teacher  in  a  business  college  at  Ypsilanti;  Dr.  J.  M.  Blackman,  of  Quincy; 
W.  G.  Cowell,  now  prosecuting  attorney  of  Branch  county;  AlHe  Day,  Gene- 
vieve Allen,  Fern  Haysmer,  Edith  Haight. 

1895 — Charles  A.  D.  Young,  a  government  engineer  on  the  Sault 
canal;  Will  Moore,  Fred  Wilbur,  Bert  Herrick.  l^wis  Powel.  Arthur  Noble, 
An)brose  Bailey,  Pearl  Herendeen,  Rena  Bowers,  Minnie  Bailey,  Georgia 
Marks,  Myrtie  Sanderson,  Louie  Kinyon. 

1896— -Orrin  Bowen,  the  Bronson  attorney;  Lu!a  R.  Knapp,  wife  of 
Volney  Hungerford,  superintendent  of  schools  at  Decatur,  Michigan;  Mary 
E.  Alien,  Ward  W.  Allen.  Maud  Babcock.  Clifford  A.  BJsho]),  Erma  M. 
Bogue,  Cora  M.  Briggs,  Lillian  B.  Culver.  Julia  E.  Harpham,  Ella  Lashuay. 
Mabel  Noble,  Arthur  E.  Rogers,  Fannie  E.  Spauiding,  Lucinda  Spaulding. 

1897— -Mabel  Luse,  Lottie  Safford,  Ira  Trimm,  Lulu  Wiser.  Bertie 
Mason,  Ora  Safford.  Eva  Vaughn,  Mertie  Strang,  Frank  Berry,  Anna  B. 
Orcutt,  Maud  Thompson,  Arthur  Berry.  Minnie  Oliver.  Jennie  Oliver. 

1898 — ^Alice  Hougbtaling,  Angelene  Haynes,  Henry  W.  Austin.  Mabel 
J.  Belote,  James  W.  Bums,  Salla  Spaulding,  Joseph  W.  Barker,  Carlotta  E. 
Dean,  Laura  E.  Eldred,  Grace  M.  Harpham,  Everett  E.  EiOrris,  Grace 
Bailey. 

T899 — Ruby  Kinyon,  Grace  Kinyon,  Em.ma  Barber,  W.  Albert  Eldred. 
Tnis  Herrick.  Edith  Hewitt,  Edna  Knapp.  Otis  Ransom.  Essie  Sharp,  Vera 
Thompson,  Eliza  Warner,  Orson  Warner. 

1900 — Joe!  M.  Barnes,  now  a  special  science  .student  in  the  University 
of  Michigan:  Walter  Failor,  an  electrical  engineer  and  superintendent  of 
an  electric  railway  on  the  Pacific  coast:  Carl  C.  Sears,  now  practicing  medi- 
cine at  Ouincy;  Millie  Barnes,  Maria  Bradon,  W.  John  Bums,  Nellie  Her- 
endeen. 

iQOi — Carl  Gottscha?k,  a  graduate  in  electrical  engineering  from  the 
University  of  Michigan;  Harold  C.  Jones,  a  special  student  in  chemistrv  at 
the  University;  Ralph  S.  Andrews,  bookkeeper  for  the  Wolverine  Portland 
Cement  Co.  at  Quincy;  Kittie  B.  lies,  George  R.  Oxenham.  Leona  D.  Bar- 
ber, Ida  M.  Walter,  Leora  A.  Walter,  H.  Lea  Benge,  Mable  L.  Ethei-idge 


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Union  City  School  Buildmj 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  167 

1902 — Ray  Whitniore,  a  graduate  in  metlicine  at  the  University  of 
Michigan;  Grace  B.  Walsh.  Carry  M.  Sheldon,  Anna  Oxenham,  Everett 
Benge. 

1903 — Harry  Farwell,  a  draftsman  at  Detroit;  Edith  M.  Green, 
formerly  a  Quincy  teacher  and  now  in  the  Ypsilanti  NoiTna! :  Fred  Eoley, 
an  electrical  engineer  at  South  Bend:  Elva  Gage,  Lena  Wilmarth.  Sarah 
Safford,  I^iiis  Hoxie,  Edith  Walter,  Ralph  Keeler,  Glenn  Ransom. 

1904 — Ralph  McKenzie,  Robert  Sanderson,  Ross  D.  Porter.  Morean 
Elheridge.  Myrta  Crater,  Clara  Stafford,  Jessie  Bowerman,  Jessie  Robinson, 
Wilhelmina  Walsh,  Rc»e  Horning,  Loviie  Knirk. 

1905— Charles  H.  Walters,  Edan  M.  Ransburg,  Greta  W.  Forte,  Ray 
R.  Brott,  Mary  E.  Peiioyer,  Florence  M.  Dickerson,  Charles  H.  Waiters, 
Lulu  B.  Brott,  Jessie  M.  Aldrich,  Rena  A.  Tompkins,  Roy  A.  Botey,  NeiHe 
M.  l«irzelere,  Bernice  V.  Newberry,   Harry  E.  Robinson. 

The  officers  of  the  Alumni  Association  for  1905-06  were:  Mrs.  George 
Houghtaling.  president;  Miss  Jessie  Aldrich,, vice  president;  Dr.  Carl  Sears, 
secretary  and  treasurer. 

Union  City  Schools. 

The  first  schoolhouse  in  Union  City,  built  in  1837,  a  frame  structure, 
painted  red  and  long  known  as  "  the  reel  schoolhouse,"  is  still  standing  upon 
its  original  site  at  the  corner  of  Ellen  and  Ann  streets,  having  been  for  many 
years  in  use  as  a  dwelling.  A  little  further  down  on  Ellen  street  is  the 
handsome  three-story  brick  and  stone  building  that  for  the  past  thirty  years 
has  been  the  central  school  building  of  the  village.  These  two  buildings 
graphically  illustrate  the  contrast  between  the  educational  facilities  of  the 
first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century  and  those  of  the  present.  The  pioneer 
equipment  of  schools  described  in  an  earlier  part  of  this  article  on  education 
has  been  displaced  by  apparatus  ami  methwls  in  all  res]>ects  in  keeping  with 
the  character  of  the  buildings  which  now  provide  shelter  for  educational 
work.  The  people  of  Union  City  are  justly  proud  of  their  schools,  and  the 
principal  events  in  the  progress  of  the  educational  institutions  of  the  village 
should  be  given  at  this  point. 

April  26,  1837,  soon  after  the  organization  of  the  township  of  Union, 
it  was  divided  into  four  school  districts,  and  that  the  assistance  rendered 
by  the  state  at  this  early  date  was  not  large  will  be  plainly  seen  when  we 
state  that  the  apportionment  of  school  moneys  to  all  the  schools  in  the 
township  in  1838  was  only  $51.38.  School  District  No.  2  included  Union 
City,  and  the  first  teacher' to  have  charge  here  after  the  organzation  of  the 
districts  was  Miss  Ellen  E.  Hammond,  daughter  of  Deacon  Chester  Hanv 
mond.  This  was  a  summer  school  and  was  taught  in  1838.  The  teachers 
immediately  following  Miss  Hammond  ivere  Henry  Hammond  and  Miss 
Sarah  Sargent,  although  it  is  creditably  related  that  Miss  Sargent  was  really 
the  first  teacher  in  Union  City,  she  giving  instruction  during  the  winter  of 
1836-37,  before  the  organization  of  districts.     Certain  it  is,   however,  that 


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168  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

Miss  Sargent  taught  a  school  during  the  winter  of  1839-40  in  the  office  of 
Justus  Goodwin,  on  the  county  line. 

The  first  schoolhouse  was  built  in  Union  City  in  1837,  and  the  building- 
was  also  used  by  the  Methodist  and  Congregational  societies  on  alternate 
Sundays.  At  about  this  time  schools  were  also  established  in  the  rural  dis- 
tricts surrounding  Union  City,  and  among  the  first  was  the  one  in  the  l,inco!n 
district,  south  of  town,  where  in  the  summer  of  1838  a  school  was  taught 
in  a  chamber  of  Caleb  Lincoln's  house,  the  school  building  being  erected 
the  following  year. 

The  real  development  of  the  Union  City  schools  began,  howei-'er,  with 
the  erection  of  the  present  handsome  school  building  on  Ellen  street.  The 
town  had  grown  so  rapidly  in  population  that  in  the  early  seventies  it  became 
evident  that  there  must  be  additional  room  and  facilities  for  the  accommoda- 
tion of  the  rapidly  growing  number  of  pupils.  Accordingly  the  present 
building  was  completed  in  1877  at  a  cost  of  about  $25,000.  It  is  a  remarka- 
bly elegant  and  substantial  building  of  stone  and  brick,  three  stories  high, 
and  the  improvements  made  upon  it  each  year  have  served  to  make  it  a 
model  of  convenience  and  utility.  It  has  a  fine  public  hall,  a  completely 
equipped  laboratory,  a  well-selected  library,  and  all  the  modern  equipments 
and  accessories,  including  water  and  electric  lights  upon  every  fioor. 

Excellent  work  is  done  in  the  lower  grades  and  the  high  school  is  con- 
sidered among  the  very  best  in  this  portion  of  the  state.  There  are  seven 
regular  courses  of  study  and  such  is  their  thoroughness  and  completeness 
that  the  high  school  has  for  years  been  on  the  approved  list  of  the  University 
of  Michigan,  graduates  therefrom  being  admitted  direct  to  the  university 
without  examination. 

The  graduates  of  the  Union  City  High  School  during  the  different 
vears  from  the  first  class  in  1880  to  the  class  of  1906  are  named  in  follow- 
ing paragraphs.  It  seems  just,  however,  to  single  out  certain  names  from 
the  various  classes  and  mention  the  position  which  has  lieen  attained  by  the 
person  in  each  case  since  he  left  the  high  school  to  begin  the  battle  of  life. 
Of  the  class  of  1880,  C.  E.  Wisner  is  now  a  resident  of  Toledo  and 
engaged  in  land  development  in  the  south.  E,  L.  Moseley  is  an  entomologist 
who  has  gained  considerable  prominence  in  his  profession.  W.  H,  Bnim- 
field  is  at  the  head  of  a  signal  service  bureau  in  the  west.  Of  tjie  class  of 
1884,  Walter  Groesbeck  is  a  patent  attorney  at  Washington,  D.  C;  G.  H. 
Sevmoiir  is  head  of  the  banking  business  in  Sherwood,  and  Delia  Page  is  a 
teacher  of  deaf  mutes  in  West  Superior,  Wisconsin. 

Two  well  known  representatives  of  the  class  of  1886  are  Leon  A.  John- 
son, present  supervisor  of  Union  township,  and  C.  H.  Jotwell,  connected 
with  the  Farmers  National  Bank  of  Union  City.  From  the  class  of  1887 
should  be  mentioned  Edward  Guernsey,  a  foreign  buyer  for  Marshall  Field 
and  Company;  and  Mrs.  Jennie  (Walker)  Spore,  who  is  the  sole  founder 
and  manager  of  the  Union  City  Creamery,  an  enterprise  which  she  has  built 
up  by  her  own  biisiness  judgment   and  energy.     From  the  class   of    1888, 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  169 

Herbert  Johnson  is  a  snccessfui  music  teacher  of  Battle  Creek,  and  Walter 
Lowell  is  in  charge  of  a  sugar  plantation  in  the  Hawaiian  Islands. 

In  the  class  of  1SS9  were  Carolyn  L.  Willard,  now  a  well  known  con- 
cert pianist,  associated  with  Madame  Blooinfield  Zeisler  of  Chicago ;  and 
Edwin  Hayden,  who  fills  the  chair  of  sociology  in  the  University  of  Mis- 
souri. Ray  Buflinganie  of  the  class  of  1890  is  a  druggist  at  Dowagiac.  Of 
those  who  went  out  in  1892,  R.  W,  Coddington  is  a 'superintendent  of  schools 
in  Michigan,  and  Jessie  Willard  is  a  doctor  of  osteopathy  in  Chicago.  Lulu 
Palmer,  of  1893,  is  a  teacher  in  one  of  the  Wisconsin  state  normals.  Of 
1894,  I^eo  Warren  is  superintendent  of  schools  in  North  St.  Paul,  Minn. ; 
Hubert  Bell  is  superintendent  of  schools  at  Boyne  City,  Mich.,  and  E.  M. 
Chauncey  is  a  physician  at  Girard.  George  Gaw.  of  the  class  of  1895,  '^ 
cashier  in  an  Ypsilanti  bank,  and  his  classmate,  Ralph  Morrill,  is  a  physician 
in  Lincoln,  Neb.,  and  on  the  faculty  of  a  medical  college  in  that  city.  Clay- 
ton Crandall  and  Carrie,  of  the  class  of  1896,  are  high  school  teachers,  and 
many  other  of  the  graduates  fill  similar  positions  throughout  this  and  ad- 
joining states.  Of  the  class  of  1897,  Arthur  Barnes  is  superintendent  of 
schools  at  Olivet  and  F.  W.  Ackerman  is  principal  of  the  Union  City  schools. 
T^o  L.  Eddy  is  superintendent  of  the  schools  at  Sherwood,  and  N.  P.  Olm- 
sted is  a  minister.  George  Barnes,  from  the  class  of  1898,  gained  the  high 
scholastic  honor  of  a  Rhodes  scholarship  at  Oxford,  England,  and  is  now 
attending  that  university.  H.  H.  Willard,  of  1899,  is  on  the  faculty  of  the 
school  of  pharmacy  of  the  University  of  Michigan,  and  A.  H.  Tower  of  the 
same  class  is  a  doctor  at  Centerville. 

The  graduates  for  the  different  years  are: 

1880 — Elbert  L.  Page,  A.  Harshman  Harrison.  George  E.  Willitts,  C. 
Edward  Wisner,  Lorenzo  D.  Cochrane,  Edward  L.  Moseley.  Willard  H. 
Brumfield,  William  H.  Bauer,  Robert  H.  Baker,  John  D.  H.  Wallace,  Jay 
P.  Lee,  Norris  A.  Cole,  Ward  C.  Walker,  Elma  Lynn. 

1881— Ida  Soiitherland,  Jamie  Rowe.  M.  Ross  Graham,  Warren  D. 
Converse. 

1883— Nettie  Doty. 

1884— Mvra  McDonald,  Walter  Groesbeck.  Erta  Tuthill.  George  H. 
Seymour,  Jennie  Corbin,  John  Bishop,  Edward  Stafford,  Doane  Smith. 
Lydia  Race,  Eva  Lester,  Delia  Page,  Lida  Neabitt. 

1885— Nellie  Giltner,  Nellie  lathrop.  Rose  Swartout,  Sabrie  Van  Vleet, 
Hattie  Johnson,  Verona  Smith,  Lura  l^verty. 

iSSe^I^on  A.  Johnson,  Minnie  Van  Camp,  Cora  D.  Fulton,  Chade? 
H.  Burton,  Minnie  Eddy,  Jennie  Chase,  Charles  H.  lx>well. 

i887~Edith  Underwood,  Hattie  Blake,  Nathan  Rowe.  Jessie  Peck, 
Nanette  Jeffery.  Edward  Guernsey,  Stella  Buell,  Isaac  J.  Margeson,  Freti 
Stafford,  Bertha  Sawin,  Frank  Cain,  Robert  McDonald,  Jennie  Walker. 

1888— Herbert  Johnson,  Mary  Stevens,  Walter  Lowell,  Wylie  Hub- 
bard, Fred  M.  Hodge,  Nettie  Lee,  Habey  Haas,  Mae  Swartout,  Ophelia  Van 
Vleet,  Maude  Hubbard.  Mattie  Stratton,  Nellie  Tliompson. 


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170  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

18S9-— Frances  Russeil,  Carrie  L.  Willard,  Edwin  Hayden,  Clarence 
Brace,  Millie  Simmons. 

1890 — E.  May  Thompson,  Lanrene  Corbin.  Mertis  Wellman.  Bvrdie 
Gaw.  Ray  Burlingame,  Claude  Whitney,  Daisy  Buell,  Georgia  Smythe,  J-'eha 
Mattheu-s. 

1891— L.  Belle  Watkins.  Fred  J.  French,  Frances  C.  Wilkins.  Nellie 
Clark,  Alta  McCrary,  V.  D.  Lee.  Isabella  Maxon,  Myrtie  Mitchell,  Hannah 
Russell,  Emma  Merritt,  Lois  French. 

T892 — Ralph  Waldo  Coddington.  Fred  Hammond,  Earl  Hubbard. 
Thomas  Cain.  May  Burlingame,  Frank  S.  Mann,  Edna  Peck,  Fannie  Bailey, 
May  I.  Lowell,  Jessie  WiUard,  Sophia  Page,  Ella  Gillett. 

1893 — Jessie  Banford.  Grace  Smith,  Grace  Dmmm,  Mae  Lee,  IJbbie 
Fitzgerald,  Sereno  B.  Clark,  Albert  Milier.  Lizzie  Peck,  Lulu  Palmer,  Earl 
Hayner. 

1894 — Hattie  Wells,  Georgia  Bassett,  Anna  Melody,  Leo  Warren, 
Chauncey,  Lina  Merrill. 

1895 — Nettie  Stevens,  Ethel  Kiiboum,  Clara  Page,  Bertha  Greenfield, 
Myrta  Bartlett,  Edna  Case.  George  Gaw,  Ralph  Morrill,  Lizzie  Norton. 

1806— Elmer  Wilson,  Winfred  Pierce,  Harry  Kimball.  Ora  Hayner, 
Carrie  Hurd,  Miles  Rider.  Harry  Wilcox,  Frank  Buell,  Clayton  Crandali. 

1897 — 'John  L.  Moore,  Lillie  Mitchell.  Coral  Johnson,  J.  C.  Studley, 
Kittie  Bell,  Jennie  Smith,  Thomas  Buell,  Arthur  Barnes,  Simeon  Bole, 
George  Howard,  Minnie  Smith,  Clarence  Reynolds,  J.  Carl  Gaw,  John 
Tniax,  F.  Ella  Kiiboum,  F.  W.  Ackerman,  Marcella  Bums,  Roy  McEwen, 
G.  E.  Ackerman,  Carrie  Saunders,  Ethel  BumViam,  N.  Perl  Olmsted,  Carle 
Smith,  Nellie  Strong,  Henry  Wells,  Leo.  1,.  Eddy,  Alice  Pierce. 

1898' — George  Barnes,  Gertrude  Travis,  Bertha  Simons,  Blaine  Brown. 
Carrie  Ward,  Victor  Crandali,  Hettie  Smith,  Flora  Banford,  Lester  Crandal!, 
Earl  Fuller,  James  Melody,  Daisy  Matteson,  Ber\-i  Knauss,  Floyd  Davis, 
Veva  Bole,  Grace  Gaw,  Lena  Fox. 

1899 — Levi  A.  Geer.  Cora  E.  Seymour,  Holxirt  H.  Willard,  Ethel  M. 
Kimball,  Lottie  Bell,  NelHe  M.  Spencer,  Inland  H.  Tower.  J.  Morris  Smith, 
William  H.  Bruening,  Fred  H.  Hass,  Jessie  R.  Morrill,  Bessie  F.  Hubbard. 

1900— Clara  L.  Buell,  Ora  L.  .Smith,  Fred  S.  Dunks,  Erta  B,  Kimball, 
Mertie  M.  Hass,  Harry  M.  Simmons,  Courtney  B,  Aiken,  Henrietta  M. 
Knauss,  Ervin  A,  Warsop. 

1901 — Mary  L.  Dibble.  Grace  R.  Dunks,  Daisy  L.  Eberhardt,  Lura  V. 
Eitniear.  Nellie  E.  French,  Jesse  N.  Hayner,  William  H.  Melody,  Nina  E. 
Palmer,  Amy  Mortina  Sweet.  H.  Harris  Ward,  Sherman  Wilson. 

1902 — Dean  S.  Johnson,  Ernest  E.  Baird,  Mildred  N.  Wood.  Elcy  T. 
McCausey.  Dean  E.  Shannon,  Zella  E.  Merrifield,  G.  Belle  Fisk,  Lula  Libhart, 
Dorr  D.  Buell.  Hilda  M.  Bmening,  Pauline  G.  Hawley,  Claude  L.  Bullock, 
Maude  E.  Grill.  Maiorie  Buell,  Viva  A.  Spore. 

190;^ — Bennett  H.  Ackerman.  Franklin  F.  Holhrook,  Iza  S.  Holbrook. 
Claude  W.   Johnson,  Howard  I.   Ludwig,   Homei-  R.   Mallow,   Harland   A. 


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HISTORY  O'F  BRANCH.  COUNTY  171 

Johnson,  Viletta  B.  Loivejoy,  Jessie  Wheeler,  Roy  S.  Wheeler,  Jesse  C.  Kim- 
ball, John  C.  Corbin,  Roy  G.  Newman,  Louise  L.  Lux. 

1904— Mary  I^  McCausey,  Mary  Copeland,  Glviin  Buell,  Hazel  Bowen, 
Burr  Collyer,  Bessie  Corbin,  Thomas  McCanse>-,  May  Clifford,  Ray  Warren, 
David  Church,  Lncia  Drake. 

1905— Petra  Lundteigen,  Edith  V.  Smith,  Charlotte  P.  Carr,  Aimee 
Palmer.  Maude  A.  Knauss,  Hazel  V.  Whitney,  Ethel  F.  Pullman.  Eva  D. 
Lux,  Ethei  A.  Johnson,  Lynn  E.  Wooti.  Gladys  Brown,  Aaron  W.  Poole, 
Frank  R.  Corwin,  Deo  R.  Parsons. 

1906— Harry  Clifford.  Matt  Corwin,  Margaret  Stitt,  Don  Nichols, 
Bessie  Kilbourn,  Emma  Boyer,  Carma  Libhart,  Vivian  Baker. 

Bronson  Village  Schools. 

The  first  school  in  the  county,  taught  by  Columbia  Lancaster  at  Bron- 
son Prairie  in  the  winter  of  1830-31,  has  already  been  spoken  of.  This  and 
several  otiier  schools,  supported  in  a  private  way  by  several  families  co- 
operating in  carrying  them  on,  preceded  the  first  public  school  on  the  prairie 
in  the  township,  and  this  first  public  school  was  the  banning  of  what  has 
become  "  the  Public  Schools  of  Bronson." 

The  "Bronson  Public  Schools,"  as  a  i>aniphlet,  pubhshed  for  1905-06 
by  the  Board  of  Education,  is  entitled,  are  not  schools  in  several  buildings, 
nor  are  they  schools  free  to  pupils  residing  in  the  village  only.  'ITiey  are 
schools  in  one  building,  and  this  building  is  the  schoolhouse  of  a  school  dis- 
trict, including,  besides  the  village,  territory  from  one  to  two  miles  beyond  it 
in  all  directions.  The  district  bears  today  the  designation,  "District  No.  i," 
the  number  indicating  that  it  was  the  first  district  organized  in  the  township. 
The  schools  carried  on  in  this  one  building  of  the  district  are,  the  high  school, 
the  grammar  or  intermediate  school  and  the  primary  school,  the  latter  being 
more  commnly  spoken  of  as  "  grades  "  or  "  departments."  The  time  of  tlie 
entire  course  is  twelve  years,  four  years  being  given  to  each  department. 
Graduates  of  the  high  school  may  lie  admitted  to  any  of  the  Michigan  State 
Normal  colleges  without  examination. 

This  District  No.  i  was  certainly  organized  some  time  before  1839, 
probably  in  1837.  Its  first  school,  the  first  public  scJiool  of  the  township, 
was  taught  in  a  building  on  the  ground  where  the  Werner  Bros,  building 
now  stands  on  Matteson  street,  south  of  Chicago  street.  Among  the  early 
teachers  in  this  building  were  Miss  Salona  Pixley  and  Miss  Maria  Taggart. 
Mr.  Ij^ring  Grant  Jones,  still  living  in  the  village,  remembers  attending 
school  in  this  building.  Later  a  schoolhouse  was  built  a  considerable  distance 
to  the  east  on  a  corner  of  the  Chicago  road  and  the  rc«d  running  south  on  the 
eastern  Imundarv  of  the  village.  Here  Miss  Mary  Ann  Clark  taught  for  a 
time.  Mr.  Jones  remembers  as  otlier  teachers  also,  Mr.  Mitchell,  Mr. 
"  Dick  "  Daugherty  and  Mr,  Homer  Wright,  a  brother  of  Mr.  P.  P.  Wright. 

Population  on  the  prairie  increased  and  when  the  village  stage  arrived 
a  union  school  was  established.     The  report  of  the  director  on  this  union 


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,172  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

school  is  illustrative  not  only  of  this  particular  school  but  in  g-eneral  of  the 
status  of  most  village  schools  at  the  time.  The  state  superintendent  of 
public  instruction,  in  1857,  asked  information  concerning  each  of  the  union 
schools  then  in  the  state,  and  Jason  Shepard,  then  director  of  the  Bronson 
school  district,  in  his  reply  dated  January  13,  1858,  gave  the  following  cate- 
gorical answers  to  the  series  of  questions: 

rst.     Our  school  wai  e'itabbshed  on  the  4th  of  the  present  month      (Jan  larj     i'*';8  ) 

2nd,     The  size  of  the  site  is  one  acre  of  land 

3rd,  The  schoolhou'e  i'  33  by  43  feet  on  the  ground  two  'tones  high  rooms  i-  feet 
in  the  clear  mith  recitation  rooms  in  each  story     Cost  of  the  house  $2500 

4th,  The  apparatus  is  small  consisling  only  of  Mitchells  Outline  Maps  Lostmg  $1100, 
Number  of  volumes  m  library   125 

Sth,  At  present  there  i"  bit  one  depirtment  to  our  school  hut  on  the  first  of  April 
it  is  expected  another  will  be  added    m  ivhiLh  the  higher  branches  will  be  tau(.ht 

6th.  We  ha\e  one  male  and  one  female  teacher — a  gentleman  ind  his  ladj — at  a  salary 
of  $50  per  month    for  boih 

7th,     The  aieratje  number  of  scholars  in  attend  nee    s  one  h      ired 

Sth.  The  course  of  stud  es  embraces  Primary  Geographi  Ph  losophj  Mtcbri  C  m- 
etry  and  Astronomj 

9th.     There  have  no  st  dents  been  fitted  for  higher  schools 

loth.  As  far  as  I  am  acquainted  the  co  education  of  the  sex:es  is  advisable  a  d  T  an- 
not  but  recommend   t 

nth.  The  expenses  of  our  school  -ire  at  present  met  bj  rate  bill  but  I  th  1  alter  tur 
next  annual  meeting  it  will  be  free  to  scholars  of  our  district 

I2th,  The  cost  of  this  system  of  schools  I  think  no  greater  thin  that  of  the  single 
district,  while  the  advantages  for  advancement  are  much  greater 

Our  school  and  schoolhouse  although  new  and  just  commenced  has  an  infliien(.e  among 
us  that  no  one  would  be  viilling  to  part  with  It  his  created  1  spint  of  energy  never  felt 
among  us  before  as  well  ts  1  desire  for  advancement  among  parents  and  thil  Iren  \\here  in- 
difference has  hitherto  prevailed  among  our  citizens,  it  is  now  asked,  what  shall  be,  and  who 
will  be  first  in,  our  next  enterprise. 

We  hope  to  give  a  good  account  of  our  school  as  time  advances,  and  that  our  reports 
hereafter  may  compare  favorably  with  other  schools. 

Yours  truly,  Jason  Sheparp,  Director. 

The  building  described  was  of  frame,  and  in  1878  a  brick  addition, 
two  stones  high,  was  constructed  in  front  of  the  old  building. 

Tlie  Bronson  school  officers  at  the  time  of  this  writing  are:  William 
Scribner.  president  of  Board  of  Education;  William  Bushnell,  secretary; 
Jacob  F.  Werner,  treasurer;  Warren  Boughton,  James  Davis,  trustees.  The 
teaching  force  are:  Frank  E.  Robinson,  superintendent;  Miss  Bertha  Rob- 
inson, principal ;  Miss  lies,  assistant  principal ;  Miss  Mernie  Bailey,  eighth 
grade;  Miss  Lucinda  Bowen,  second  and  third  grades;  Miss  Delia  Osborn, 
third  grade:  Miss  Florence  Anderson,  primary. 

The  following  paragraphs  name  the  graduates  who  in  the  years  since 
1887  have  gone  from  the  high  school : 

1887— Elison  WeJdon. 

1888— Claire  Russell.  Guella  Boughton  (Parham),  Edwin  Powers, 
Florence  Van  Every. 

i8go — Edwin  Moffit. 

1891 — Cora  Washburn   (Chapman),   Nellie  Hamilton. 

1892— Delia  Wait  (Butler),  Neihe  Ellis  (Paul).  Grace  Douglas 
(Deane),  Gula  Albertson  (Werner),  Josie  Jump,  Anna  Harris. 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  173 

1893— Hattie  Randall  (Faust).  Rose  Jump  (Staymen),  Nan  Hoskins 
(Rider),  Gussie  Van  Fleet  (Davis).  Cora  Ticknor,  Burt  Corey.  Emma  Rus- 
sell (Coon),  Ora  Cockle  (Clark),  Grace  Jones  (Howe),  Myrtle  Van  Anken, 
Rose  Parfiam  (PfafF),  Frank  Douglas. 

1895 — George  Davis,  Burt  Walker,  Howard  Horton. 

1897 — Mabel  Earle,  Lora  Quear  (Tinkham),  Mabel  Perrin,  Christie 
Shaffmaster.  Gertrude  Baxter,  Emma  Wait,  Gertie  Bush  (Chapman),  Ina 
Fox. 

1898— Estelle  Blass. 

1899— Loa  Secor  (Lindsey).  Elhel  Turner  (Gibbs),  Glenn  Green, 
Ethel  Latta.  Fred  Baxter,  Margaret  Cunningham. 

1900 — Eva  Jones,  Cornelius  Lane,  Peter  Greenwald. 

igoi^Qara  Squier,  Stella  Keyes  (Nash),  Clifford  Carpenter,  Ge<.>rge, 
Holcomb,  Rose  Davis. 

1902 — Tbeda  Bailey,  Aiidra  Spitz,   Josephine  Burnell. 

1903— Vera  Himehaugh  (Flanders).  Jeanette  Holmes.  Ina  Cfark, 
Goldie  Bush,  Julia  Tisdel,  Cicero  Holmes.  Maude  Stevenson,  Oral  Clark, 
Clyde  Bushnell. 

1904— Elwood  Bushnell,  Maude  Taggart,  Maude  Hurford,  Myra  Rug- 
gles,  Lola  Perrin.  Willie  Cook. 

1905— Cass  Scribner. 

1906 — Hazel  Branyan.  Edith  DeWitt.  Gatha  Dorn.  Kathryn  Hime- 
baugh.  Myrtle  White,  Joy  Shaffmaster,  Clesson  Bushnell,  Charles  Rich, 
Harold  Bennett  Clark. 

Shew  WOOD. 

Sherwood's  first  school  was  the  district  school  located  on  the  angling 
road  west  of  the  present  village.  With  increase  of  population  following  the 
establishment  of  the  village  in  the  seventies  a  school  was  established  within 
the  village.  In  the  late  eighties  the  schools  were  graded  and  placed  tipon 
a  good  standing  by  Mr.  James  Swain,  now  county  commissioner  of  schools, 
at  that  time  superintendent  of  the  Sherwood  schools.  In  1894  the  Sherwood 
College  buildings  were  purchaser^  and  devoted  to ,  village  school  purposes. 
Tlie  structures  are  substantial  and  modem  and  occupy  a  commanding  site. 
There  are  now  the  r^tilar  twelve  grades,  with  four  teachers,  those  for 
1906-0;'  being  Ray  Locke,  superintendent;  Bessie  Cogswell,  grammar 
grades:  Ethe!  Monteith,  intermediate,  and  Eemice  WiJIer,  primary.  The 
Ijoard  of  education  consists  of  J.  W.  Finch,  Dr.  C.  E.  Nelthorpe,  Frank 
Swain,  Charles  Hall  and  Dr,  R.  Fraser.  The  schools  are  on  the  approved 
list  of  a  large  number  of  colleges,  graduates  being  admitted  to  these  without 
exaipination. 

The  Sherwood  High  School  has  an  alumni  association  of  sixty  mem- 
bers, which  holds  annual  reunions.  The  graduates  since  1892  are  named 
as  follows ; 

1892— May  (Jackson)   Stickney,  J.  A.  Annis. 

1893— Nellie  (Thayer)   Bower,  Guy  Thurston. 


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IT*  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

1894 — Edna  R.  Locke,  Amos  Cross. 

1895 — Harry  Wilcox,  Wave  (Locke)  Wright,  Frank  French,  Mamie 
(Banker)   Hill. 

i8g6 — Grace  Smith,  Daisy  (Collins)  Clark,  Florence  Crocker,  Hattie 
Blossnnj. 

1897 — Frank  Thorns,  Edw.  Mowry,  Jennie  (Runyan)  Lampman,  Ber- 
nice  Sargent,  Adrian  Sturgis,  Nellie  (Mowry)  Cline,  Leo  R.  French,  Inez 
(Quinlan)  French,  Etta  Mowrj'. 

iSg8 — Mamie  (Hazen)  Chipman,  Gertie  (Bartlett)  Collins,  Effie 
(Alger)  Jones,  Ray  Hall. 

1899 — Glenn  Cline,  Clayton  Selby,  Josie  Mowry,  Robert  Osbom,  Guy 
L.  Mowry,  Nina  Thurston. 

1900— Lou  (Sturgis)  French,  Ear!  Taylor,  Ed.  Sargent,  Carson  Eraser, 
Vern  French,  Ernest  Cole,  Margaret  Kidney,  Glenn  Sipes,  Blanche  (Nelson) 
Bennett,  Hazel  Strickland,  Hubert  Thornton,  Susie  Davis, 

1901 — Ray  E.  l-ocke. 

Tgo2— Beulah  Gwin,  Gertrude  Robinson,  Myrtle  Robinson.  Eva  Leath- 
erherry. 

1903 — Blanch  I.  French,  George  E.  Ladyman,  Jesse  E,  Thornton. 

1904— No  graduates. 

1905— Lloyd  Warren,  Lulu  Smith,   Katie  Eddy,  Bertha  Mitchell. 

igo6 — Alice  Wattles,  Lena  Spencer. 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 


CHAPTER  XXn. 
The  State  Public  School. 

,In  1836  a  company  of  charitably  inclined  ladies  of  Detroit  organized 
the  Protestant  Ot^ihan  Asylum  of  that  city.  Governor  Henry  P.  Baldwin 
was  for  some  years  a  trustee  of  that  institution  aaxd  became  considerably 
interested  in  its  work.  Following;  his  election  as  governor  in  1868  Governor 
Baldwin  made  a  trip  to  all  the  state  institutions  and  many  oi  those  of  a 
public  and  private  charitable  nature  in  the  various  counties,  and  thoroughly 
informed  himself  of  conditions  which  he  would  meet  in  the  performance  of 
his  official  duties.  So  impressed  was  he  that  a  thorough  and  radical  change 
should  be  made  in  certain  lines  that  he  dwelt  upon  them  at  length  in  his 
inaugural  message  and  recommended  that  a  commission  be  appointed  to  give 
to  them  a  thorough  investigation  and  report  to  the  le^slature  of  1871.  The 
commission  appointed  in  accord  with  this  resolution  consisted!  of  Hon.  C.  1. 
Walker,  of  Detroit,  and  Hon.  F.  H.  Rankin,  of  Flint. 

Largely  because  of  his  connection  with  the  orphan  asylum  above  men- 
tioned Governor  Baldwin  was  in  position  to  see  the  child  problem  both 
from  a  humane  and  pviblic  policy,  and  his  message,  which  became  the  gen- 
eral instructions  of  the  commission,  set  up  that  problem  clearly.  A  short 
t|uotation  from  the  report  of  the  commission  will  describe  dependent  child 
life  as  they  found  it  in  the  county  houses,  the  onh'  home  provided  up  to 
that  time. 

"Think  of  their  surroundings:  the  raving  of  the  maniac;  the  frightful 
contortions  of  the  epileptic;  the  driveling  and  senseless  sputtering  of  the 
idiot;  the  garrulous  temper  of  the  decrepit,  neglected  old  age;  the  peevish- 
ness of  the  infirm:  the  accumulatefl  fiJth  of  all  these;  then  add  the  moral 
degeneracy  of  such  as  from  idleness  and  dissipation  seek  a  refuge  from 
honest  toil  and  you  have  a  faint  outline  of  the  surroundings  of  these  little 
boys  and  girls.  This  is  home  to  them.  Here  their  first  and  most  enduring 
impressions  of  life  are  made.  And  is  it  any  wonder  that  so  large  a  per- 
centage go  from  such  sitrixmndings  to  lives  of  idleness  and  crime  and  thus 
to  propagate  and  perpetuate  a  pauper,  dependent  and  depraved  class  for 
public  support  and  maintenance?" 

The  commission  found  two  hundred  and  twelve  dependent  children  of 
sound  mind  and  sound  bodies  in  the  county  poor  houses  and  strongly  sup- 
ported Governor  Baldwin's  recommendation  that  they  be  taken  from  these 
institutions  and  made  wards  of  the  state.     They  suggested  three  plans : 

"  1st.    Placed  bv  indenture  directly  in  families;  or 


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176  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

"  2d.     Placed  in  orphan  asylums  at  the  expense  of  the  state;  or 

"  3d.  Committed  to  an  institution  like  the  State  Primary  School  at 
Munson,  Massachusetts," 

When  the  report  of  this  commission  reached  the  legislature  in  1871  it 
was  referred  to  a  joint  committee  from  both  houses^  of  which  the  late  Hon. 
C.  D.  Randall,  of  Coldwater,  then  state  senator  from  thi?  district,  was  chair- 
man. As  its  work  progressed  various  meml^ers  of  the  committee  took  up 
the  questions  presented  and  Mr.  Randall  was  assigne<i  to  the  child  problem. 
All  three  of  the  plaris  suggested  by  the  commission  had  adherents.  '  Bills 
were  introduced  in  the  legislature  and  referred  to  the  joint  committee,  favor- 
ing each.  The  Michigan  Orphan  Asylum,  at  Adrian,  largely  under  the 
management  of  Aunt  Laura  Haviland,  as  she  was  generally  known,  was  very 
persistent  in  its  advocacy  of  the  second  of  these  plans. 

It  was  most  provident  that  the  whole  problem  went  intO'  the  hands  of 
a  man  like  Mr.  Randall,  who  was  then  in  the  height  of  his  successful  busi- 
ness career,  and  that  that  gentleman  gave  to  it  the  best  of  his  business  abiiity. 
Analyzing  each  proposition  in  turn,  he  formed  the  following  conclusions : 
The  first  plan  would  doubtless  have  proved  a  failure,  as  Mr.  Randall  argued, 
"  for  several  reasons.  Families  would  seldom  receive  children  directly  from 
the  poor  houses.  Many  of  these  children  have  been  neglected  and  need 
certain  training  before  they  can  be  successfully  placed  in  homes.  Unless 
carefully  watched  after  l>eing  placed  in  homes,  no  matter  how  carefully  the 
homes  are  selected,  great  injustice  to  the  children  must  often  result."  His 
study  of  the  orphan  asylum  plans  as  they  have  been  worked  out  in  New 
York  and  California,  under  the  contract  system,  turned  Mr.  Randall  against 
that  plan.  When  he  secured  statistics  of  the  general  lack  of  success  in  active 
life  by  institutionally  raised  children  he  could  not  be  won  to  that  plan  by  the 
persistent  Adrian  lobbyists  or  anyone  else.  The  special  institution  referred 
to  in  the  third  plan  was  more  on  the  line  of  what  the  industrial  schools  of 
this  state  have  since  become,  except  that  it  was  for  both  dependent  and  de- 
praved children.  Their  union  in  one  institvition  at  once  became  a  menace  to 
the  better  class.  From  a  union  of  all  these  Mr.  Randall  tinally  evolved  a 
plan  which  he  presented  to  the  committee  in  two  short  sections  : 

"  ist  The  state  assumes  guardianship  of  all  dependent  children  of 
sound  mind  and  body  between  ten  and  sixteen  years  of  age. 

"  2d.  There  shall  be  a  state  public  school  for  these  children  connected 
with  the  common  school  system,  to  be  their  temporary  educational  home  until 
they  can  be  placed  in  family  homes,  the  state  to  supervise  them  during 
minority." 

Mr.  Randall's  ideas  were  unanimously  endorsed  by  the  joint  committee, 
and  he  was  instructed  to  draft  a  bill  which  he  introduced  on  February  22. 
Tt  passed  both  houses  and  was  signed  by  Governor  Bagley  on  April  17,  1871. 
and  created  the  State  Public  School  on  substantially  the  same  lines  it  has 
always  followed — the  first  state  institution  of  its  kind  in  the  world.  After 
an  experience  of  thirty-four  years  the  greatest  change  from  Mr.  Randall's 
original  plan  is  the  reduction  of  the  age  limit  at  each  end.     Everyone  Ijelieves 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  177 

tlie  admission  of  the  babies  is  a  good  thing,  but  whether  the  limit  should 
have  been  ait  below  sixteen  years  is  a  debatable  problem. 

As  soon  as  the  bill  was  passed  Mr.  Randall  beg^n  a  campaign  to  secure 
the  institLition  for  Coldwatcr.  Jackson,  Flint,  Albion,  Holly,-  Adrian,  Brook- 
lyn. Northville,  Grand  Haven,  Plymouth,  St.  Johns,  Lansing,  North  Lan- 
sing, Portland,  Jonesvilte  and  Monroe  also  came  out  with  bids  for  its  location. 
The  late  Hon.  Harvey  Haynes  proposed  to  Mr.  Randall  to  take  equal  chances 
and  offer  the  board  of  location  the  sum  of  twenty-five  thousand  dollars  if 
the  school  should  be  located  here.  On  April  19,  1872,  John  J.  Bagley 
(afterward  governor),  .secretary  of  the  commission,  wrote  Mr.  Randall,  in 
behalf  of  the  commission,  offering  to  locate  here  if  the  city  would  donate  the 
Haynes  tract  and  seven  acres  east  of  it,  in  all  twenty-seven  acres,  and  give 
Ixmds  to  pay  into  the  treasury  of  the  institution  five  thousand  dollars  per 
vear  for  five  years.  It  took  a  lot  of  bard  work,  but  the  funds  were  secured 
and  the  offer  accepted. 

Tlie  .State  Board  of  Corrections  and  Charities  was  another  outgrowth  of 
Governor  Baldwin's  message  and  the  commission  above  referred  to.  By 
its  provisions  the  Governor  appointed  an  agent  of  this  board  in  each  county 
of  the  state.  Among  his  duties  this  officer  is  to  constantly  search  for  suitable 
homes  for  dependent  children  in  his  county,  and  is  the  legal  guardian  of 
children  from  the  State  Public  School  during  their  indenture  into  homes 
in  his  county.  The  legislature  has  since  provided  for  a  state  agent  who 
travels  from  county  to  county  assisting  county  agents  and  inspiring  them  to 
do  good  vrork.  The  work  of  the  school  has  been  to  reduce  the  per  capita  of 
dependent  children  of  the  state  to  a  very  large  extent,  while  the  population 
has  more  than  doubled.  The  institution  opened  in  1874.  During  that  year 
one  hundred  and  thirteen  boys  and  forty-seven  gir5s  were  received  and  caretl 
for.  a  total  of  one  hundred  and  sixty.  During  the  school  year  of  1903-04 
there  wer^  ninety-eight  boys  and  eighty-one  girls  received,  a  total  of  one 
hundred  and  seventy-nine.  The  total  number  of  boys  received  up  to  the  close 
of  the  year  1903-04  was  three  thousand  five  hundred  and  forty-two,  and  the 
total  number  of  giris  one  thousand  nine  hundred  and  thirty-eight;  total 
number  of  children,  five  thousand  four  hundred  and  eighty  to  the  close  of 
that  fiscal  year,  which  is  the  last  published  report  of  the  institution. 

From  a  table  in  the  last  monthlv  report  of  the  clerk  of  the  mstitution 
to  the  board  the  following  figures  will  be  of  interest,  showing  the  disposition 
of  all  children  since  the  school  opened. 

Received  since  school  opened  in  May,  1874 57QO 

Tn  families  on  indenture  first  of  the  month - 1 1  Ig 

In  families  on  indenture  became  operative  dunng  month 2« 

In  families  on  trial    ■ ■  ■  ■■ -> 

Placed  in  families  and  residence  unknown  for  over  a  year. ...  10 


Total  from  whom  reports  are 


to  be  obtained 1207 


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ITS  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  '    ; 

Remaining'  in  the  institution  at  this  date   .  . 172 

Total  present  wards  of  the  school    , 1379 

Returned  to  ctninties  by  order  of  the  board 749 

Died  in   families  and  in  school    .  . ., 227 

Adopted  by  proceeding's  in  the  probate  courts , 687 

Have  become  of  legal  age   .  .  ., , ,^60 

Girls  married ,,  , ., , 186 

Have  been  restored  to  parents 589 

Have  become  self-supporting    1613 

Total    5790     5790 

Of  the  children  received  up  to  the  last  published  report  5,190  have  been 
white,  269  colored  and  21  Indian;  1,289  were  American  born,  1,067  foreign 
born  and  3,124  nationality  unknown;  384  were  orphans,  1,069  half  orphans. 
2,667  both  parents  living,  360  unknown  parentage.  Tlie  average  time  of 
residence  at  the  school  for  all  children  has  been  4.05  months.  The  success 
of  the  plan  is  e^'idenced  by  the  fact  that  of  all  the  children  indentured  into 
homes  3,017  have  had  to  be  indentured  but  once,  and  800  were  successfully 
placed  at  the  second  trial.  When  it  is  remembered  that  misfits  as  to  disposi- 
tion are  more  conducive  to  lack  of  success  both  as  to  the  home  and  the  child 
than  any  other  cause,  this  record  is  remarkable.  Of  the  854  children  visited 
in  homds  by  the  state  agent  in  the  year  previous  to  his  last  report  he  sum- 
marized 524  as  "  doing  well,"  223  as  "  doing  fairly  well  "  and  only  36  as 
"  doing  poorly."'  and  this  was  only  five  per  cent  of  those  visited. 

While  the  maintenance  of  children  in  orphan  asylums  costs  other  states 
from  fifty  to  one  hundred  dollars  per  year  for  each  child,  the  larg-e  number 
who  are  successfully  indentured  into  good  homes  by  the  "  Michigan  plan  " 
as  it  is  generally  known,  has  reduced  the  average  expense  to  the  state  per 
child  from  year  to  year  to  less  than  hventy-eight  dollars,  and  the  "  Michigan 
plan  "  places  children  in  that  best  of  all  places  for  their  sviccessful  growth  to 
the  idea!  manhood  and  womanhood,  the  homes  of  its  people. 

There  are  several  things  which  have  been  factors  in  the  success  of  the 
State  Public  School.  Among  them  has  been  the  careful  and  efficient  man- 
agement of  its  various  superintendents.  In  turn  they  have  been  Zeiotus 
Truesdell,  Lyman  P.  Alden,  John  N.  Foster,  Wesley  Sears,  Chancy  F.  New- 
kirk,  W.  H.'Wieand,  A.  N.  Woodruff.  A.  J.  Murray.  John  B.  Montgomery. 
The  latter  gentleman  has  held  the  position  since  December  15.  1S97.  The 
present  board  of  control  are  Governor  Fred  M.  Warner,  ex-officio;  Frank 
M.  Stewart,  Hillsdale;  John  D.  Shull,  Tecumseh;  and  Norman  A.  Reynolds, 
Coldwater. 

Of  course,  there  have  been  changes  since  the  school  started.  The 
original  plot  of  twenty-seven  acres  has  gradually  expanded  to  one  hundred 
and  sixty  acres.  The  buildings  now  include  a  fine  administration  building, 
chapel  and  dining  room,  a  commodious  school  building,  nine  cottages,  hos- 
pital, power  house,  bams,  laundry,  etc.     The  last  invoice  of  state  property  at 


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C.ooj^lo 


BrancK  County  Infirmary 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  179 

the  institution  placed  the  huiklings  at  $159,111 ;  the  steam  heating  plant,  etc., 
at  $25,000;  the  land  at  $26,000.  and  the  whole  outfit  at  $259,950. 

Among  the  recent  changes  is  the  admission  of  babies,  which  has  now 
been  done  for  nearly  five  years,  at  first  onlv  in  a  limited  way,  but  of  late 
taking  all  that  have  come,  Tlie  experiment  has  been'  entirely  successful. 
Instead  of  these  waifs  being  promiscuously  given  away  and  drifting  to  no 
one  knows  where,  they  are  now  carefully  cared  for  and  their  interests 
properly  guarded.  Children  of  these  institutions  have  no  taint  upon  them, 
they  are  simply  dependent.  Many  of  them  have  gone  out  to  win  positions  of 
trust  and  honor,  and  several  are  leading  citizens  in  various  state  circles. 

The  Branch  County  Infirmary  for  dependent  people,  after  an  ex- 
istence of  nearly  forty  years,  stands  today  as  a  monument  to  the  wisdcsn 
and  sagacity  of  the  state  legislators  of  the  early  sixties,  who  enacted  the 
laws  providing  for  its  establishment  and  maintenance. 

Michigan  has  long  been  noted  for  her  charitable  institutions,  but  proba- 
bly no  public  institution  has  been  productive  of  more  genuine  good  than  this 
Branch  county  infirmary  for  the  poor  and  distressed  people  of  our  county. 

The  institution  is  located  just  north  of  the  city  on  the  Marshall  road. 
A  fine  farm  of  one  hundred  and  forty  acres  admirably  managed  provides  a 
goodly  share  of  the  table  supplies,  while  supporting  a  fine  herd  of  Jersey  and 
Durham  cattle  from  which  is  obtained  the  large  amount  of  milk  and  butter 
necessary  in  an  institution  of  this  kind.  Mr.  George  E.  Burdick,  the  keeper, 
manages  to  turn  over  to  the  treasurer  from  six  to  twelve  hundred  dollars  each 
year,  for  products  taken  from  the  farm.  The  main  building  is  a  large  three- 
story  brick  structure  of  forty  rooms  and  admirably  constructed  for  the  pur- 
pose intended.     The  arrangements  are  convenient  and  grounds  beautiful. 

The  main  building  contains  the  superintendent's  office  and  keeper's 
private  apartments.  On  the  first  floor  are  the  inmates'  dining-rooms,  pantries, 
sitting  rooms,  one  iarge  kitchen,  supplied  with  lai^e  range  and  steam  cookers. 
One  large  room  with  six  beds  is  expressly  for  the  old  ladies  that  are  not 
able  to  go  to  the  second  floors;  second  and  third  floors  are  arranged  as  dorma- 
tories,  while  the  basement  is  utilized  as  store  rooms  for  the  large  amount  of 
needed  supplies.  At  convenient  points  upon  the  grounds  are  the  hospital, 
power  house,  laundry,  vegetable  cellar  and  many  other  buildings  necessary 
for  the  management  of  an  institution  of  this  kind. 

The  law  provides  for  the  admission  of  inmates  to  the  institution  on  the 
certificate  of  one  of  the  superintendents  of  the  poor,  to  be  issued  only  to 
dependent  people  who  have  no  one  to  care  for  them.  Since  the  establishment 
of  the  infirmary  in  i860  over  two  thousand  persons  have  been  received  and 
cared  for;  there  are.  on  an  average,  forty  inmates.  A  physician  is  hired  by 
the  year,  Dr.  Legg,  of  Coldwater,  being  the  present  physician.  The  inmates 
are  well  looked  after,  comfortably  clothed  and  fed  on  good  wholesome  food. 
All  beds  throughout  the  in,sthution  are  iron  with  good  springs  and  mat- 
tresses and  plenty  of  bedding.  Those  that  are  able  to  work  are  furnished 
with  such  employment  as  he  or  she  is  able  to  perform. 


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180  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

The  main  building  and  hospitals  are  heated  by  steam.  An  electric  light- 
ing plant  has  just  been  installed,  which  adds  to  the  convenience  and  safety; 
also  three  fire  escapes  on  the  main  building. 

The  laundry  is  thoroughly  equipped  with  all  modern  machinery.  The 
plant  has  its  own  water  works  and  sewerage,  and  every  attention  is  paid  to 
sanitary  measures. 

Devotional  exercises  are  conducted  once  a  month  by  the  W.  C.  T,  U. 
and  are  looked  forward  to  with  a  great  deal  of  interest  by  the  inmates.  The 
holidays  are  always  observed  in  due  form.  The  infirmary  is  in  direct  charge 
of  a  board  of  superintendents.  Tlie  present  board  are  E.  F.  Rolpb,  Cold- 
water;  D.  W.  Dodge,  Union  City,  and  Dr.  E.  Blackman,  of  Quincy.  The 
keeper  and  matron,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  George  E.  Bnrdick,  have  complete  man- 
agement and  have  as  assistants  in  their  work  two  engineers,  one  farm  hand 
and  two  cooks.  Institutions  of  this  kind  are  being  looked  after  more  care- 
fully than  in  the  past,  their  development  and  management  are  increasing 
year  by  year,  so  that  they  are  now  ranking  with  state  and  other  large  institu- 
tifms  of  the  day. 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 


CHAPTER  XXTII. 
LIBRARIES— ACTIVITY  IN  LITERATURE,  MUSIC,  ART. 

The  library  movement  in  this  county  may  be  said  to  have  had  its  prac- 
tical beginning  in  connection  with  the  schools,  there  being-  provisions  for  the 
estabhshment  of  school  libraries  in  the  first  scliooi  legislation.  The  pioneer 
conception  of  a  school  library  Avas,  like  most  things  of  that  time,  primitive 
and  crude.  It  is  related  that  the  citizens  of  one  district  in  the  county  set 
aside  £tie  dollars  to  "  establish  "  a  library  and  an  eqnal  amount  for  the  pur- 
chase of  a  suitable  case  in  which  to  keep  the  books.  Only  ten  dollars  each 
year,  in  fact,  could  by  law  be  set  aside  for  a  library.  This  was,  of  course, 
strictly  a  school  library,  and  as  such  a  part  of  school  apparatus;  it  would 
hardly  come  nnder  the  consideration  of  this  chapter. 

Later  the  law  was  enacted  providing  that  a  township  might  tax  itself  to 
maintain  a  township  library.  Union  City  has  a  township  library  which  as 
yet  provides  all  the  library  facilities  to  be  found  in  that  village  except  the 
school  libraries.  In  some  villages  of  the  state  the  township  library  is  in  a 
flourishing  condition,  but  as  a  rule  the  township  library'  does  not  fill  the  place 
that  the  makers  of  the  law  propose<l. 

Bronson. 

Eronson  has  a  townshi]>  library  which  has  become,  largely  through  the 
efforts  of  the  ladies  of  the  village,  an  institution  worthy  of  the  name.  "  The 
Free  Public  Library  of  Bronson  "  had  its  beginning  in  a  "  Ladies'  Library 
Association,"  of  which,  in  the  catalogtie  of  1901,  the  following  are  named 
as  members:  Mrs.  Mary  Powers  Gillam  (nee  Shepard),  Mrs.  Nellie  Corey. 
Mrs.  Warren  Byrns,  Mrs.  J.  Decatur  Driggs  (nee  Flanders),  and  Mrs.  E.  C. 
Stevens  and  others.  The  association  was  begun  about  1880,  and  a  reorgani- 
zation and  change  of  name  occurred  in  1888.  Mrs.  Corey  was  the  first 
librarian.  In  1901  a  catalogue  was  printed,  whh  an  ordinary  sized  octavo 
page  of  seventy-two  pages.  Previous  to  this  the  catalogue  was  printed  on 
both  sides  of  large  cards  about  12  by  16  inches.  The  number  of  volumes 
in  the  Bronson  library  in  1901  was  about  2800.  The  library  is  located  in  the 
town  hall  of  Bronson  township,  and,  as  stated,  is  a  township  and  not  a  village 
librarv.  It  is  open  every  Saturday  from  2  to  5  p.  m.,  and  also  in  the  evening. 
Mr.  Frank  Keyes,  Miss  Louise  Stevens,  Miss  Helen  Powers,  Mrs.  Mary  Akers 
have  been  librarians,  and  the  librarian  since  April  i,  1901,  has  been  Mrs. 
Josephine  (Bumell)  Green.  The  board  of  trustees  in  igoi  were  Henry  P. 
Mowry,  John  R.  Bonnev,  \'inton  H.  Shaw,  Clinton  Himebaugh,  John  D. 
Schurtz,  Nathaniel  L.  Holmes. 


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182  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COU.NTY 

Ladies'  Library  Association  of  Quincy. 

About  eig-ht  years  ago  Miss  Frey.  a  teacher  in  the  pubhc  schools,  sug- 
gested the  idea  which  was  worked  out  and  resulted  in  the  organization  of 
the  Ladies'  Library  Association.  In  January,  1898,  the  ladies  of  the  village 
held  a  sociai  at  which  each  one  contributed  one  volume  for  the  nucleus  of  tlie 
library,  and  since  then  the  members,  who  now  number  about  seventy-five, 
have  contributed  an  annual  due  of  fifty  cents,  and  besides  have  given  enter- 
tainments of  various  kinds  to  raise  revenue.  A  small  amount  is  also  derived 
from  the  five-cent  fee  charged  each  outsider  who  takes  a  book. 

There  is  no  question  of  the  success  of  the  association's  efforts.  In 
almost  every  case  the  mimermts  Carnegie  and  other  public  libraries  of  the 
country  have  started  from  the  nucleus  established  by  a  local  association  sim- 
ilar to  that  in  Quincy,  and  the  work  now  being'  done  by  the  ladies  of  Quincy 
will  bear  fruit  through  all  the  future  years,  Tlie  library  now  contains  750 
volume.^,  mostly  fiction.  Room  for  the  books  was  first  furnished  by  Mr. 
W.  H,  Lockerby,  they  were  next  kept  for  a  time  in  rented  quarters,  until  the 
State  Bank  donated  a  room  in  the  rear  of  their  building,  where  the  collection 
is  now  located. 

Mrs.  M.  S.  Segur  has  been  president  of  the  association  since  its  incep- 
tion. Mrs.  Rodney  Twadeli  was  the  first  vice  president,  Mrs.  Charles 
Houghtaling'  being  her  successor  and  the  present  occupant  of  the  office.  Mrs. 
Walton  Barnes  is  secretary,  and  Mrs,  W.  H.  Lockerby  treasurer.  The  first 
librarian  was  Mrs.  E.  C.  Dove,  then  Mrs.  R.  D.  Rawson,  and  Mrs,  Segur  at 
present  acts  in  that  capacity. 

'  Coi.DWATER  Public  Library. 

The  history  of  the  Coldwater  Library,  which  as  an  object  of  civic  pride 
deserves  to  rank  first  among  the  city's  institutions  since  few  cities  of  the  size 
anywhere  in  the  country  have  larger  and  better  equipped  libraries,  illustrates 
a  praiseworthy  combination  of  associate  enterprise,  of  individual  liberality 
and  municipal  public  spirit. 

The  history  of  the  Coldivater  library  goes  back  iorty  years,  to  an  effort 
of  the  ladies  of  the  city  to  conduct  a  lecture  course.  Money  for  this  purpose 
was  raised  to  the  amount  of  five  hundred  dollars  by  a  series  at  home  enter- 
tainments. The  public  lecture  movement  having  by  that  time  lost  favor,  the 
lecture  association,  in  1869,  resolved  itself  into  a  Indies'  Library  Association. 
The  charter  members  of  this  association  were:  Margaret  L,  Powers,  Mari- 
etta K.  Loveridge,  Georgiana  L,  Cutter.  Emeline  Barber,  Mary  A.  Wade, 
Mariet  Smith,  Harriet  D.  Morgan,  Mary  C,  Champion,  Mary  Shipman, 
Alma  I,ewis,  Alice  C.  Randall.  Lizzie  P,  Woodward,  Ardessa  Crippen.  Helen 
L.  Lanphere.  Harriet  L.  Mockridge,  Olivia  Safford,  Josephine  P.  McGowan, 
Adeline  M.  Wing.  Sallie  G.  Nichols.  Mary  A.  Rose,  Arn  Van  Valkenburgh. 
These  may  be  considered  the  founders  of  the  public  library  in  Coldwater, 

Besides  the  money  which  had  accumulated  from  the  lecture  movement, 
the  city  was  canvassed  for  subscriptions  to  annual  memberships  in  the  library 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  1^3 

association,  and  tweiity-three  life  memberships  were  also  sold  at  thirty  dollars 
each.  This  gave  the  association  an  original  capital  of  twelve  hundred  and 
fifty  dollars. 

Fifteen  hundred  dollars  were  expended  during  the  first  year  for  books, 
and  by  the  end  of  1870  there  were  twelve  hundred  volumes  in  the  library. 
The  first  Hbrary  quarters  were  the  parlors  of  the  late  Dr.  Beach's  home  on 
East  Chicago  street,  which  he  donated  to  the  association.  In  1874  he  pre- 
sented the  association  with  a  building  in  the  rear  of  his  dwelling  and  a  five- 
year  lease  on  the  ground.  Several  hundred  dollars  were  spent  in  making  the 
building  convenient  for  Us  purpose.  Thus,  by  1880,  the  Ladies'  Library  As- 
sociation of  Cofdwater  was  in  a  flourishing  condition,  having  a  library' of 
two  thousand  volumes,  a  steady  membership  and  having  been  untaxed  by 
rent  and  other  heavy  expenses. 

Besides  the  ladies'  library,  there  was  a  school  library  of  about  a  thousand 
volumes.  This  had  accumulated  in  regular  course  from  scliool  tax  devoted 
to  that  purpose,  and  the  books  were  kept  in  the  schoolhouses. 

Tn  March,  1880,  the  Coldwater  city  council,  in  accordance  with  an  act 
of  the  legislature  providing  that  public  libraries  might  be  organized  and 
maintainetl  by  townships  and  municipalities,  adopted  a.  resolution  providing 
for  the  establishment  of  a  city  library,  the  same  to  be  free  to  all  citizens, 
and  to  be  in  charge  of  a  library  Ixiard  of  nine  citizens,  who  were 
to  have  complete  control  of  the  library.  Tlie  act  of  the  city  coiincil 
was  part  of  the  general  plan  for  a  combination  and  enlargement  of  the  city's 
library  facilities.  The  legislature  passed  a  special  law  allowing  the  school 
library  to  be  transferred  to  the  city  library,  and  the  Ladies'  Association  also 
transferred  their  property  and  pri\'ileges  to  the  public  library,  thereby  losing 
their  existence  through  integration  with  a  larger  institution.  The  consolida- 
tion of  the  two  libraries  was  effected,  and  when  the  first  library  board  took 
charge  the  history  of  the  present  library  began. 

There  was  an  excellent  nucleus  of  books,  but  otherwise  the  growth  of 
the  library  to  its  present  proportions  has  taken  place  since  the  creation  of  the 
public  hbrary  in  1880.  Ahnost  at  the  beginning  of  its  e>:istence  the  board 
procured  the  fine  site  on  F,ast  Chicago  street  just  east  of  the  public  square, 
hut  there  were  no  funds  with  which  to  erect  a  suitable  building,  and  a  spe- 
cial appropriation  of  public  credit  for  that  purpose  was  out  of  the  question. 
The  library  had  outgrown  its  quarters,  and  its  usefulness  was  seriously  im- 
paired. In  March.  1885,  the  niunber  of  volumes  had  increased  to  5.688,  and 
the  value  of  the  institution  depended  on  the  kind  of  building  that  should 
shelter  it. 

The  public  spirit  of  a  successful  business  man  could  find  no  better  expres- 
sion and  monument  than  in  such  a  structure  as  the  Edwin  R.  Clarke  Library 
Building,  The  late  Edwin  R,  Clarke  came  to  Coldwater  in  1850,  so  that  he 
belongs  among  the  pioneers,  and  in  that  year  estabHshed  the  drug  business 
on  the  corner  of  Chicago  and  Monroe  streets  which,  at  the  same  location,  has 
been  increased  and  has  been  successfully  conducted  to  the  present  time.  Mr. 
Clarke's  ability  and  success  as  a  merchant  were  equalled  by  his  interest  in  his 


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184,  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

city.  He  did  not  give  recklessly  without  thought  of  results;  but  exercised 
the  same  care  in  that  direction  which  had  made  his  business  prosperous. 
With  mature  forethought,  therefore,  he  offered  to  build  a  home  for  tlie 
Coldwater  public  library,  and  at  the  same  time  submitted  plans  of  the  build- 
ing which  he  proposed  to  erect.  His  generous  offer  was  accepted.  The 
building  was  begun  in  the  summer  of  1886,  and  on  December  29,  1886,  the 
formal  presentation  and  dedication  were  celebrated  in  the  Tibbits  opera 
house.  It  is  proper  to  quote  the  words  with  which  Mr.  Clarke  presented  the 
building  to  the  city:  "  When  I  first  came  to  Michigan,"  he  said,  "  the  coun- 
try' was  new.  The  people  generally  were  in  moderate  circumstances,  and 
f)ooks  and  reading  matter  were  not  pientiful.  I  well  remember  the  great 
privilege  it  seemed  and  the  kindness  I  felt  it  to  be  when  some  of  those  early 
settlers  gave  me  access  to,  and  the  use  of,  their  limited  collection  of  books. 
Recollections  of  those  early  days  and  the  desire  to  express  tlie  friendship  I 
feel  toward  a  community  in  which  I  have  lived  so  long,  induced  me  to  offer 
to  build  for  you  a  library  building." 

The  library  is  supported  by  the  fines  which  formerly  went  to  the  school 
library  and  also  a  half-mill  tax  on  city  property.  From  six  thoaisand  volumes 
in  1885  the  main  library  floor  is  now  overcrowded  with  sixteen  thousand 
volumes,,  and  there  are  hundreds  of  documents  and  other  material  stored  in 
the  lecture  room  on  the  second  floor.  The  most  notable  single  addition  was 
the  private  library  of  the  late  H,  C.  Lewis.  Among  the  three  thousand  vol- 
umes of  the  collection  are  many  costly  and  valuable  works  on  art.  Mr.  Lewis 
was  also  a  connoisseur  in  fine  bindings,  and  the  examples  which  he  gathered 
at  much  cost  of  money  and  effort  are  also  preserved  in  the  library. 

Miss  Mary  A.  Eddy,  who  had  been  for  some  time  librarian  of  the  La- 
dies' Association,  was  appointed  librarian  of  the  public  library  July  6,  1881.. 
She  was  succeeded  by  Miss  Florence  M.  Hoimes,  who  has  held  the  position 
of  librarian  since  1895.  The  usefulness  of  the  library  to  the  public  has  been 
largely  due  to  their  capable  and  intelligent  direction.  The  board  of  directors 
at  this  writing  are  the  following :  Z.  G.  Osborn,  president ;  C.  U.  Champion, 
vice  president;  H.  H.  Barlow,  secretary;  and  Mrs.  G.  Van  Valkenburgh,  M. 
W.  Wimer,  Mrs.  Margaret  U.  Clarke,  Mrs.  Alma  M.  Cunningham,  Will- 
iam Wilson  and  Elmer  E.  Palmer. 

Activity  in  Literature,  Art  and  Ml-sic. 
An  institution  that  for  a  number  of  years  did  much  to  foster  an  in- 
terest and  taste  in  the  best  works  of  art  was  the  Lewis  Art  Gallery,  which 
was  established  by  the  late  H.  C.  Lewis  some  time  during  the  sixties.  The 
collection  had  been  gathered  during  the  sojourn  of  Mr.  Lewis  and  his  wife 
abroad,  especially  in  Italv,  and  consisted  of  a  number  of  originals  and  copies 
of  well  known  works  of'  the  ancient  and  modern  schools.  To  afford  proper 
quarters  for  this  collection  Mr.  Lewis  erected,  just  west  of  his  residence,  a 
gallery,  which  is  the  south  portion  of  the  present  Y.  M.  C.  A.  building;  and 
when  the  collection  continued  to  grow,  he  built  an  addition,  forty  by  forty 
feet,  on  the  north  side  of  the  first  gallery.     Some  time  after  the  death  of  Mr. 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  185 

Lewis  the  collection  of  paintings  was  removed  to  Ann  Arbor,  having  been 
bequeathed  to  the  State  University.  The  Lewis  Art  Gallery  building  was 
afterwards  remodeled  to  some  extent  and  has  since  served  as  the  home  of 
the  Y.  M.  C.  A. 

Writers,  Artists  and  Musical  Organizations. 

The  number  of  individuals  belonging  to  Branch  county  who  have  been 
original  producers  in  the  fields  of  literature  and  the  fine  arts  cannot  be  said 
to  be  large.  And  yet  comparison  with  other  communities  might  reveal  it  as 
a  fact,  that  in  proportion  to  its  population  its  number  of  producers  in  these 
fields  is  as  high  as  the  average  in  our  state  or  in  the  entire  country.  There 
are  not  many  Branch  county  people  who  have  written  books,  or  painted  fine 
pictures,  or  composed  music,  or  chiseled  works  of  sculpture,  or  designe{l 
artistic  structures  as  architects.  The  large  cities  with  their  wealth  and  social 
stimulus  and  culture  draw  to  themselves  the  talented  and  ambitious  indi- 
viduals. Branch  county  has  only  one  city,  and  that  with  a  population  only 
a  little  more  than  6,000.  The  county  has  no  college,  while  Hillsdale  on  the 
east  of  it  has  Hillsdale  College,  Calhoun  on  the  north  has  Albion  College. 
;md  Kalamazoo  cornering  on  the  northwest  has  its  ICalamazoo  College.  The 
three  counties.  Branch,  St.  Joseph,  and  Cass,  so  similar  in  many  respects,  as 
we  have  noted,  are  alike  also  in.  this,  that  no  one  of  them  has  the  scholarship 
and  culture  of  a  college  within  its  borders. 

The  classes  of  persons  in  every  community  who  are  naturally  tnost  in- 
clined to  write  out  their  thoughts  and  have  them  printed  for  others  to  read 
are  its  editors,  ministers,  lawyers,  physicians  and  teachers.  Besides  these, 
every  American  community  as  large  as  a  county  is  likely  to  have  individuals 
in  it  who  make  writing  for  the  reading  world  a  part  of  their  work.  Branch 
county  has  persons  in  it  belonging  to  every  one  of  these  classes,  whose  writ- 
ing has  been  printed  and  has  gone  into  the  reading  matter  of  the  people  of  the 
county  or  of  a  wider  public. 

Of  course  the  class  who  give  the  most  reading  matter  to  the  public  are 
the  editors  of  the  newspapers.  From  the  very  beginning  Branch  county  has 
had  men  among  the  editors  of  its  papers,  who,  besides  giving  to  the  people 
a  large  and  well  arranged  amount  of  local  news,  have  done  strong,  thought- 
ful, and  effective  editorial  writing,  men  too  whose  work  has  something  of 
real  literary  quality  in  it.  The  names  of  most  of  these  editorial  writers  have 
been  mentioned  already  in  treating  of  the  press  of  the  county,  but  a  sketch  of 
its  literary  activities  requires  allusion  at  least  also  here  to  the  editors  as  a  class, 
if  not  some  particular  mention  of  persons. 

First  in  the  list  of  editors  who  have  done  large  and  influential  work  in 
the  county  in  putting  their  thought  into  language  stands  the  name  of  Albert 
Chandler.  For  eight  years  from  April  6,  i&l-i,  he  wrote  something  every 
week  in  the  Coldwater  SenHnel  that  the  people  of  the  county  read.  To  re- 
cord the  beginning,  however,  of  this  kind  of  literary  production  in  the  coun- 
ty requires  that  we  go  back  four  years  farther  to  the  year  1837  and  into  the 
extinct  little  village  of  Branch.    There  Charles  P.  West  put  his  own  editorials 


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186  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

into  the  Michigan  Star  with  now  and  then  a  brighter  and  keener  article  from 
the  pen  of  his  sister.  Miss  Laura  West.  Between  1S50  and  i860  Ehhii  B. 
Pond,  H.  B.  Stillman,  Seth  W.  Driggs,  Col.  H.  C.  Gilbert,  Judge  John  H. 
Gray,  and  his  son,  John  H.  Gray,  Jr.,  sent  from  Coldwater  week  by  week 
the  product  of  their  pens,  a  product  exhibiting  no  low  literary  quality,  Dur- 
ij.g  the  next  decade,  i860  to  1870,  Coldwater  still  continued  to  do  almost  the 
entire  editorial  writing  done  in  the  county.  The  men  who  did  it  were :  Jonas 
H.  McGowan,  C.  P.  Benton,  F.  V.  Smith,  W.  G.  Moore.  Major  David  J. 
Easton,  P.  P.  Nichols,  and  Frank  L.  Skeels. 

The  man  who  ranks  as  the  Nestor  of  Branch  county  editors,  both  by 
reason  of  his  long  service  and  the  large  amount  and  high  character  of  his 
work,  is  Abram  J.  Aldrich.  Beginning  with  the  weekly  in  1873  and  going  on 
from  1875  with  a  semi-weekly,  for  twenty  years  continuously  he  put  his 
thought  week  by  week  upon  the  pages  of  his  paper.  Behind  his  thought  was 
the  scholarship  of  a  university  graduate,  a  wide  range  of  reading,  and  high 
moral  ideals.  His  thought  had  substance,  insight,  breadth  and  moral  earn- 
estness, and  his  language  had  vigor  and  aptness  of  phrase.  The  following 
extract  from  his  editorial  in  the  first  number  of  the  Semi-Weekly  Republican, 
issued  August  3.  1875.  is  typical  of  the  man  and  his  paper,  and  is  an  his- 
torical example  of  the  kind  of  literature  produced  by  a  Branch  county  man 
and  read  by  Branch  county  people  for  twenty  years.  Tlie  editorial  was  head- 
ed, "Independent  Journalism,"  and  contained  the  following:  "We  hear 
more  about  independent  journalism  in  these  clays  than  ever  before.  It  is  said 
that  one  with  God  is  a  majority.  True.  Butoftentimesi  that  one  who  imag- 
ines himself  on  God's  side  may  be  mistaken ;  and,  at  all  events,  he  most  gen- 
erally finds  the  majority  of  voters  against  him  when  it  ctrnies  to  an  election. 
■'"  *  *  At  this  time  in  our  poHtical  history  we  are  attaining  the  point 
where  but  two  parties  exist.  While  the  editor  must  choose  the  fold  to  which 
he  shall  belong,  it  is  not  his  duty  to  blindly  accept  the  following  of  any  per- 
son who  may  for  the  nonce  be  the  recognized  party  leader.  The  Republican 
has  always  been  and  still  continues,  the  advocate  of  Republican  principles." 

In  the  years  following  1870,  besides  by  Mr.  Aldrich,  editorial  writing  has 
been  done  in  Coldwater  by  Jefferson  S.  Conover,  Calvin  J,  Thorpe,  Henry  C. 
Bailey  and  his  son,  Willis  C.  Bailey,  S.  H.  Egabroad,  Frederic  Martin 
Townsend,  Major  George  H.  Turner,  Charles  S.  Newell,  John  S.  Evans, 
Simon  B.  Kitchel  and  his  son,  Horace  Kitchel.  The  writings  of  C.  J.  Thorpe 
were  characterized  by  scholarship,  scientific  ideas  and  literary  form;  those 
of  Major  Turner  by  historical  and  classical  allusion  and  by  rhetorical  and 
even  poetical  style.  About  1870  the  villages  of  the  county  too  began  creat- 
ing a  good  quality  of  literary  product  in  their  local  papers.  In  1869  David 
J.  Easton  left  the  sanctum  of  the  Republican  in  Coldwater  and  set  up  that  of 
the  Register  in  Union  City,  where  he  went  on  to  the  end  of  his  long  and  in- 
fluential editorial  career.  In  1S78  Colonel  Cornelius  VanRennselaer  Pond 
began  printing  his  vigorous  English  in  the  Quincy  Herald.  In  1880  the 
Bronson  Journal  began.     Mr.  C,  W.  Owen  was  at  one  time  editor  of  that 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  187 

paper;  later  he  did  editorial  work  in  Coldwater,  and  afterwards  he  made  the 
Ouiiicy  Herald  the  rnedium  of  his  ideas. 

In  addition  to  the  strictly  editorial  literature  contained  in  the  press  o£ 
the  county,  its  editors  have  always  opened  their  columns  generoiisiy  to  others. 
The  papers  of  the  county  during  the  past  forty  years  thus  show  on  their  pages 
sermons  of  resident  ministers,  and  well  written  articles  on  varied  subjects 
by  the  thinking,  educated  men  and  women  of  the  county.  Two  persons 
especially  have  done  a  large  amount  of  this  work  in  the  county  papers  dur- 
ing the  past  fifteen  years,  Mr.  C.  J.  Thorpe  and  Mr,  Charles  W.  Bennett, 
the  former  on  economic  and  philological  subjects,  the  latter  on  geological  and 
theological. 

Besides  the  literary  product  that  has  thus  been  printed  week  by  week 
upon  the  pages  of  its  papers,  books  have  been  written  by  some  of  the  natives 
and  residents  of  the  county.  We  name  the  following  in  this  connection : 
Mrs.  Fannie  E.  Newberry,  Mrs.  Ceha  Parker  Woolley,  Miss  Ida  Dandridge 
Bennett.  Mr.  Allen  Dyer  Shaffmaster,  Rev.  Robert  W.  Van  Schoick.  D.  D., 
Mrs.  Clara  Dilhngham  Pierson.  and  Miss  Frances  Alice  Kellor, 

Mrs.  Newberry,  Miss  Bennett,  and  Mr.  Schaffmaster  have  re,sided  in 
the  county  for  years,  and  these,  with  Dr.  Van  Schoick,  wrote  their  books 
while  residents  of  the  county.  The  parents  of  Mrs.  Woolley  have  been  resi- 
dents of  the  county  continuously  since  1S48.  Though  she  herself  was  born 
in  Toledo,  0.,  nearly  all  her  early  life  was  spent  in  Coldwater  and  her  edu- 
cation was  received  there.  Mrs.  Pierson  and  Miss  Kellor  were  born  in  Cold- 
water  and  there  grew  to  adult  years. 

In  the  Coldwater  Scmi^Weckiy  Republican  of  April  4,  1876.  there  is 
printed  upon  the  first  page  a  story  with  this  heading:  "Written  for  the 
Republkaiw.  '  A  Lordly  Soul,'  by  Fannie  E.  Newberry."  In  1891  Mrs.  New- 
berry began  putting  hei'  work  into  book  form.  Since  then  she  has  written  the 
following  fifteen  volumes:  "The  Impress  of  a  Gentlewoman,"  "Brian's 
Home,"  "Comrades,"  "Transplanted,"  "The  Odd  One,"  "Sara:  A  Prin- 
cess," "  All  Aboard,"  "  House  of  Hollister,"  "  Everyday  Honor,"  "  The 
Wrestler  of  Philippi,"  "  Strange  Conditions,"  "  A  Son's  Victory,"  "  Bubbles," 
"Not  for  Profit,"  "  Joyce's  Investment," 

Miss  Ida  Bennett  has  been  writing  regularly  for  several  magazines  since 
1895.  Among  them  are :  The  Woman's  Home  Companion,  American  Homes 
and  Gardetis,  Indoors  and  Out,  Tozvn  and  Country,  Ladies'  Home  Journal, 
and  Suburban  Life.  In  1893  she  wrote  "  The  Flower  Garden,  A  Handbook 
of  Practical  Garden  Lore,"  which  was  published  by  McClure,  Phillips  &  Co., 
of  New  York,  as  a  book  of  282  pages  with  numerous  illustrations. 

Mr.  Shaffmaster's  home  is  in  Bronson,  where  he  is  editor  of  the  Bron- 
son  Journal.  In  1904  he  prepared  for  the  press  "  Hmiting  in  the  Land  of 
Hiawatha,  or  the  Hunting  Trips  of  an  Editor."  It  made  a  volume  of  220 
pages  with  40  illustrations  as  published  by  M,  A.  Donohue  &  Co.  of  Chi- 
cago. 

Rev.  Dr.  Van  Sclioick  while  a  resident  of  Coldwater  attended  the 
World's  Fourth  Sunday   School  Convention  in  Jerusalem  in  1904.     In  con- 


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188  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

iiection  with  his  journey  he  wrote  articles  or  letters,  which  were  first  printed 
in  the  Coldwater  Reporter  and  afterward  pubhshed  in  book  form  by  Eaton  & 
Mains,  making  a  book  of  253  pagea  with  25  illustrations. 

Branch  county  people  have  noted  with  interest  and  with  allowable  pride 
the  work  that  has  been  done  and  the  books  that  have  been  written  by  Mrs. 
Woolley  jti  Chicago,  Mrs.  Pierson  in  Stanton,  Mich.,  and  Miss  Kellor  in 
New  York  City,  and  they  may  claim  some  share  of  influence  in  originating 
and  developing  the  abilities  which  have  already  wrought  such  results.  As  to 
their  literary  productions  we  record  the  following:  Mrs.  Woolley  wrote  in 
1897  "Rachel  Armstrong,  or  Love  and  Theology,"  in  1889  "A  Girl  Gradu- 
ate," in  1892  "  Roger  Hunt."  Mrs.  Pierson  since  1897  has  written  and  pub- 
lished through  E.  P.  Dutton  &  Co.  of  New  York,  ten  volumes :  "  Among  the 
Meadow  People."  "  Among  the  Forest  People,"  "  Among  the  Farmyard  Peo- 
ple," "  Among  the  Pond  People,"  "  Among  the  Night  People,"  "  Notebook 
of  an  Adopted  Mother,"  "  Dooryard  Stories,"  "  Tales  of  a  Poultry  Farm," 
"  Three  Little  Millers,"  and  the  "  Millers  of  Pencroft."  Miss  Kellor  wrote 
in  1901  "  Experimental  Sociology,  Descriptive  and  Analytical,"  which  was 
published  by  the  Macmillan  Company,  and  in  1904  "  Out  of  Work,  a  Study 
of  Employment  Agencies,"  published  by  G.  P.  Putnams'  Sons. 

Early  in  1876  there  was  in  Coldwater  "  Tlie  Woman's  Club,"  which 
studied  especially  United  States  history  in  preparation  for  the  interests  and 
observances  of  the  Centennial  year.  In  1892  and  1893,  largely  through  the 
suggestion  and  direction  of  the  librarian  of  the  Coldwater  Public  Library, 
Miss  Mary  A.  Eddy,  the  Columbian  Woman's  Club  was  organized,  dividing 
itself  into  several  "  circles."  This  club  has  continued  its  existence  and  con- 
nected itself  with  the  Michigan  Federation. 

The  Twentieth  Century  Club  of  Coldwater  was  organized  and  incorpor- 
ated April  20,  1892.  Its  object  was  stated  to  be  "  intellectual,  scientific  and 
esthetic  culture."  The  membership  has  been  composed  of  men  and  women 
and  has  been  limhed  to  forty  in  number.  It  has  regularly  held  its  meetings 
every  two  weeks  in  each  year  between  Oct.  i  and  June  15.  The  presidents 
of  the  club  have  been:  Caleb  D.  Randall,  George  H.  Turner,  ex -Governor 
Cyms  G.  Luce,  and  Milton  W.  Wimer.  In  Batavia  township  the  Bay 
View  Reading  Club  has  been  active  for  more  than  ten  years. 

The  fortnightly  Musical  Club  of  Coldwater  is  a  strong  organization  of 
the  women  of  the  city.  The  choirs  of  the  several  churches  with  their  or- 
ganists have  done  much  to  promote  musical  culture  everywhere  in  the  county. 
George  W.  Klock  has  been  an  organist  and  teacher  of  music  in  Coldwater 
for  more  than  twenty-five  years.  For  a  still  longer  time  Dr.  William  L.  An- 
drews was  a  choir  leader  in  the  city,  and  by  his  enthusiasm  and  unselfish  de- 
votion to  musical  work  probably  did  more  than  any  other  one  man  in  the 
county  in  creating  a  popular  interest  in  music. 

The  Lewis  Art  Gallery,  already  spoken  of,  left  some  of  its  works  in 
Coldwater  and  thus  has  continued  somewhat  to  help  maintain  an  interest  in 
painting  and  sculpture.  Coldwater  has  no  sculptural  nor  architectural  mon- 
ument to  its  soldiers  of  the  Civil  war.     In  this  regard  Ouincy  and  Union  City 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  189 

excel  the  county  seat,  each  having  erected  a  worthy  monument  to  its  heroes 
of  1S61-65.  The  most  imposing  building  in  the  county  is  the  county  court- 
house. One  of  Coldwater's  own  citizens  was  the  architect  of  this  edifice, 
Mr.  Marcellus  H.  Parker.  Mr.  Parker  also  designed  the  main  building  and 
five  cottages  of  the  State  Public  School,  the  Lewis  Art  Gallery,  the  Bap- 
tist church,  and  the  Edwin  R.  Clarke  Public  Library  building. 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 


CHAPTER  XXrV. 

RELIGION  AND  CHURCH  ORGANIZATIONS. 

Religion  and  its  institutions  and  organizations  have  been  a  prominent 
part  o£  mankind's  life  everywhere  in  historic  time.  The  religion  of  the 
people  of  the  United  States  is,  of  course,  in  general  the  Christian  religion  in 
distinction  from  Mohammedanism  and  Buddhism.  Of  the  three  great  forms 
of  Chr!,=tianity,  the  Roman,  the  Greek  and  the  Protestant,  6n\y  the  two,  the 
Roman  and  the  Protestant,  have  entered  in  any  organized  form  into  the  life 
of  the  people  of  Branch  county. 

Religious  feeling  and  thought  express  tliemselves  most  conspicuously 
in  church  organizatioois  and  church  activity.  We  shall  endeavor  to  give 
a  brief  account  of  the  church  organizations  in  the  county  in  which  the 
Protestant  and  Roman  Catholic  belief  of  its  people  has  been  embodied.  Prot- 
estantism in  its  history  has  differentiated  itself  into  its  well  known  denomin- 
ations, having  in  every  region  their  local  churches,  in  one  or  both  senses  of 
the  word  church,  that  is,  a  social  organization  only,  or  a  social  organization 
and  a  building  in  which  it  carries  on  its  activities.  We  shall  group  together 
all  the  churches  in  the  county  connected  with  each  denomination,  following 
mainly  the  chronological  order  in  their  treatment. 

There  have  always  been  in  the  churches  of  the  county  the  forms  of 
church  activity  common  in  the  several  denominations  throughout  the  world. 
Every  seventh  day,  Sunday  or  Saturday,  lias  been  a  day  for  gathering'  of 
men,  women  and  children  in  their  church  buildings  for  their  various  exercises 
of  "  worship,"  or  "  divine  service,"  and  for  Sunday-schools  in  which  the 
Bible  and  Christian  life  and  history  have  been  studied  and  taught.  One  or 
more  evenings  of  the  week  have  been  used  for  prayer  and  conference  meet- 
ings, for  improvement  in  church  music,  for  study  of  the  Bible  and  Christian- 
ity and  for  social  fellowship.  The  church  buildings  have  thus  been  centers 
in  which  a  large  amount  of  associative  activity  has  been  carried  on,  producing 
a  large  amount  of  thought,  feeling,  determination,  and  action  of  the  kind  com- 
monly spoken  of  as  religious,  moral,  ethical  and  spiritual.  At  the  same 
time  all  this  activity  and  all  these  forms  of  life  have  been  essentially  social, 
and  have  exerted  a  continuous  and  powerful  influence  in  many  w^ays  upon  the 
life  of  the  people  of  our  county. 

Methodist  Episcopal  Churches. 
The  first  denomination  to  begin  an  organized  church  life  in  the  countv 
was  the  Methodist  Episcopal.     In  Allen  Tibbits'  log  house  in  Coldwater,  June 
19,   1832,  Rev.  E.  H.   Piicher,  of  the  Tecumseh  circuit,  organized  the  first 


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lA)  .MKTHdIHST   l.-HrKrH. 


CoUw.ler,  kuill  1836-38 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNT!'  lyi 

Methodist  class  in  Branch  county,  its  charter  membership  being  Allen  Tib- 
bits,  who  was  also  the  local  preacher;  Caroline  M.  Tibbits.  his  wife;  Joseph 
Hanchett  and  wife  Nancy,  and  Amelia  Harrison.  These,  the  founders  of 
Coldwater  village,  were  likewise  the  founders  of  Methodism  in  the  county. 
Allen  Tibbits  preached  the  first  sermon  in  his  log-  house  in  the  montli  of 
July  following.  Early  Methodism  in  Coldwater  was  represented  by  stich 
well  known  families  as  the  Crippens,  Dr.  W.  B.  Sprague,  Dr.  D.  Lii'tlefield, 
Thomas  Daugherty,  James  Fisk  and  Rev.  Francis  Smith. 

.The  class  was  a  mission  until  1836,  when  it  became  a  self-supporting 
circuit,  and  in  June,  1838,  the  first  church  building,  a  wooden  structure,  and 
standing  on  the  site  of  the  present  Methodist  church  on  North  Marshall 
street,  was  dedicated.  This  served  as  the  church  home  for  thirty  years  and  is 
illustrated  on  another  page.  January  26,  1869,  Rev.  F.  M.  Eddy  dedicated 
the  present  brick  church,  which,  with  an  addition  constructe<l  in  1878,  has 
served  the  Methodist  congregation  until  the  present  time.  The  building  as 
first  constructed  cost  $25,000.  In  1878  the  pipe  organ  was  installed,  this 
lieing  the  gift  of  Alonzo  M'"aterman  and  his  daughters,  Mrs.  Mary  C.  Fenn 
and  Miss  Allie  A.  Waterman. 

Beginning  with  the  Rev.  Allen  Tibbits,  some  of  the  best  known  pastors 
who  have  served  this  church  were:  William  Sprague,  Peter  Sabin,  in  1836; 
Benjamin  Sabin,  I.  Cogshall,  in  1875-6,  and  in  more  recent  years  J.  O.  Buell, 
A.  P.  Moors.  D.  F.  Barnes,  D.  D.,  H.  M.  Joy.  W.  A.  Hnnsberge'r'.  James 
Hamilton,  Wm.  Denman,  A.  M.  Goold,  W.  L.  Barth,  W.  I.  Cogshall,  Wm. 
P.  French,  L,  E.  Lennox,  and  F.  M,  Chapman,  D.  D. 

MtTHonisT  Episcopal  Church,  Ouincy. 

Ilie  first  Methodist  class  at  Ouincy  was  formed  in  1836  at  the  home  of 
the  pioneer,  John  Eroughton.  He  and  his  wife.  Bartholomew  Hewitt  and 
wife,  Rev.  James  Clizbe  and  wife,  and  Dr.  Berry  composed  the  members  of 
this  class.  The  ministers  were  supplied  from  the  Coldwater  charge  until 
1843,  ^"^1  after  that  they  came  from  the  Litchfield  circuit.  Rev.  B.  N.  Shel- 
don, whose  widow  was  the  author  of  the  historical  paper  from  which  these 
facts  are  taken,  was  the  first  resident  minister  at  Quincy,  coming  about  1853. 
It  wag  through  his  efforts  that  the  first  church  edifice  was  erected  and  dedi- 
cated on  January  i,  1855.  In  the  summer  of  i86g  the  church  was  entirely 
rebuilt  and  refurnished,  at  a  cost  of  between  three  and  four  thousand  dol- 
lars, and  largely  by  the  efforts  of  the  late  Lliram  Bennett  all  the  church 
indebtedness  was  cleared  off  by  i^74-  Repairs  have  subsequently  been  made 
to  the  structure,  but  the  present  building  practically  has  seen  nearly  forty 
years  of  service.  The  brick  parsonage  was"  built  on  Jefferson  street  about 
1S88,  at  a  cost  of  about  fifteen  hundred  dollars,  the  land  for  the  site  being 
donated  by  Enoch  Myres. 

The  pastors  from  the  time  of  Rev.  Sheldon  to  the  present  have  been : 
L.  W.  Earl,  S.  C.  Woodard.  WiHiam  Doust.  W.  W.  Johnson,  A.  Coplin, 
T.  J.  Conden.  N.  M.  Steele,  David  Thomas,  Isaac  Bennett,  James  N.  Dav- 
toii.   William  Paddock,   G.   S.  Bames,  Thomas  Lyon,  G.  L.   Haight,  C.   C. 


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192  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

0]ds,  A.  M.  Fitch,  N.  I-.  Bray,  Louis  Gro&enbaiigh,  E.  L.  Kellog!  D.  C. 
Reihl,  W.  H.  Thompson,  E.  A.  Armstrong,  W.  H.  Parsons,  F.  M.  Taylor, 
G.  S.  Robinson,  and  P.  A.  Buell,  who  came  to  the  charge  in  the  fall  of  i'905. 

The  board  of  trustees  at  this  writing  are:  M.  J.  Rawson,  L.  C.  Failor, 
H.  P.  Norton,  E.  C.  Foster,  H.  W.  Noble;  and  the  board  of  stewards,  Mrs. 
C.  H.  Halleck,  Mrs.  M.  J.  Rawson.  Mrs.  N.  C.  Herendeen,  Mrs.  H.  P. 
Norton,  Mrs  Dora  Barber,  W.  H.  Shipway,  E.  A.  Dorris,  and  J.  R.  Smith. 
The  membership  now  numbers  about  two  hundred  and  thirty. 

The  Algansee  M.  E.  church  is  a  part  of  the  Quinc>-  cliarge.  Its  mem- 
bership is  about  one  hundred,  and  their  nice  brick  church,  which  was  the 
first  and  only  building,  was  constructeirl  about  thirty-five  years  ago.  The  foJ- 
lowing  compose  the  board  of  trustees:  R.  D.  Reynolds,  Fred  Wilbur,  Purl 
Hard,  A.  D.  Ransom,  lilmer  Hoffman.  Omer  Winchell.  L.  W.  Zeller.  The 
board  of  stewards:  M.  A.  GriswoM,  H.  B.  Walbridge,  C.  C.  Foster,  Emory 
Waterbury. 

Wesleyan  Methodist  Church. 

There  is  no  definite  information  concerning  the  bringing  of  the  first 
musical  instruments  to  Branch  county,  especially  such  as  piano  and  organ, 
although  the  date  of  their  introthiction  would  measure  another  step  in  gen- 
eral progress.  But  in  the  history  of  the  Wesleyan  branch  of  the  Methodist 
church  at  Coldwater  may  be  deduced  the  conclusion  that  at  the  time  of  its 
founding  instrumental  music  was  becoming  more  or  less  firmly  fixed  in 
favor.  In  1850  a  small  number  of  the  Methodists  in  Coldwater  withdrew 
from  the  church  because  the  majority  insisted  that  the  bass  viol  be  used  to 
supplement  the  vocal  music.  This  schism  res\ilted  in  the  formation  of  the 
Wesleyan  church',  whose  first  services  were  held  in  an  old  schoolhouse  a 
mite  and  a  half  south  of  the  A'illage,  the  charter  membei-s,  among  whom'  was 
the  late  James  Fisk,  numbering  only  six  persons.  For  a  number  of  years 
services  were  conducted  in  a  schooihouse,  until  the  erection  at  the  comer  of 
North  Hudson  and  Church  street?  of  a  modest  frame  church,  which  several 
years  ago  was  remodeled.  The  membership  has  always  been  small,  but  has 
maintained  its  organization  and  the  r^^lar  church  activities.  At  the  legal 
incorporation  of  the  church  in  Nov.,  1861,  the  following  jjersons  signed  the 
articles  of  association,  their  names  constituting  the  bulk  of  the  early  mem- 
bership: S.  B.  Smith',  Salmon  Chapman,  John  P.  Bradley,  Aaron  Eurritt, 
C.  B.  F.  Bennett,  William  C.  Woodward,  D.  J.  Smith,  Olive  Bullock.  E. 
Paine,  Fanny  Chapman,  James  Fisk,  Silas  Burton,  C.  Coffman. 

Bronson. 

The  first  Methodist  class  was  formed  at  Brwison  in  1836.  but  died  out, 
and  the  present  organization  dates  from  1857.  Mrs.  Phurna  Isabell  Bartlett 
nee  Wing,  who  came  to  Bronson  about  1844,  says  that  the  first  minister  of 
the  village  within  her  remembrance  was  a  Presbyterian,  named  Patch,  living 
in  Orland.  The  first  Methodist  minister  in  her  recollection  was  Rev.  Ercan- 
brack,  who  was  in  charge  of  the  Coldwater  church  in  the  early  forties.     Rev. 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  193 

Sabin,  named  in  connection  with  the  Coldwater  church,  also  preached  in 
Bronson.  Rev.  James  N.  Dayton,  besides  preaching,  taught  the  union 
school.  The  meetings  at  first  were  held  in  the  old  "white  schooihouse "  in 
the  east  of  the  village  on  the  street  leading  to  the  cemetery,  south  of  Chicago 
street  and  on  the  east  side  of  the  road,  then  called  the  "  quarter  line  raad." 
A  Sunday-school  was  maintained  in  this  schoolhouse  at  the  time  of  Mrs. 
Rartlett's  coming,  and  she  recalls  that  Mary  Ann  Vance  was  her  teacher. 

Rev.  John  Cliibine  instituted  the  present  Methodist  society  at  Bronson 
in  1857.  It  was  a  station  of  the  Burr  Oak  charge  until  1866.  The  oldest 
book  of  records  in  possession  of  Rev.  C.  L.  Keene,  present  pastor  of  the  M. 
E.  church  at  Bronson,  and  the  oldest  record  of  the  church  of  which  he 
knows,  begins  with  "  Dec.  22,  1866,"  as  its  earliest  date.  The  first  entry  is 
that  of  "  Minutes  of  the  first  quarterly  conference  for  Bronson  circuit  * 
*  *  held  at  Snow  Prairie,  Dec.  22,  1866,  Rev.  Isaac  Taylor  in  the  chair." 
The  parts  of  the  circuit  mentioned  are  Snow  Prairie.  Matteson,  North  Gilead, 
Bronson  and  Gilead.  TTie  following  apportionment  for  the  [jastor's  salary  would 
seem  to  indicate  the  relative  strength  and  membership  of  the  "  societies  of 
the  circuit."  They  were  as  follows:  Gilead,  $2.20:  Snow  Prairie,  $2.00; 
North  Gilead.  $1.70;  Bronson,  $:.25;  Matteson,  $.85.  In  Februarj-.  1867, 
the  "Shaw  Schoolhouse  Oass"  was  added,  and  in  September  following 
Strong's  Island  was  added.  In  Sqitember,  1869,  Gilead,  Noble  Center,  East 
Gilead,  Snow  Prairie  and  Kinderhook  were  set  off  as  Gilead  circuit. 

The  Bronson  society  held  its  meetings  in  a  schoolhouse  or  public  hal! 
unfij  the  erection  of  the  present  brick  building  in  1871. 

Sherwood. 

The  first  Methodist  class  in  Sherwood  township  was  organized  in  183S, 
with  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Lyman  Studley,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  John  Onderdonk  and  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Ryan  Williams  as  charter  members.  The  frame  church  building 
was  erected  about  1858.  The  pastors  since  1877  have  been:  O.  S.  Paddock. 
J,  W.  Buell,  John  Klose,  S.  George,  C.  C.  Dawkins,  M.  H.  Mott,  W.  J. 
Tarrant,  William  Earth,  D.  D.  Martin,  J.  T.  Iddings,  G.  D.  Lee,  E.  A.  Ann- 
strong,  L.  A.  Sevitts,  J.  C.  Upton,  J.  G.  Ruoff,  Walter  Burnett,  Russell 
Bready,  A.  W.  Mumford,  J.  W.  Gosling,  W.  H.  Parsons,  Quinton  Walker, 
K.  A.  Baldwin,  F.  H.  Larabee. 

GiRARD. 

The  Methodists  were  early  in  the  field  in  Girard,  meetings  being  held 
in  the  home  of  John  Cornish  while  he  was  sUil  a  resident  of  that  township. 
Allen  Tibbits  preached  here  and  in  a  schoolhouse.  The  church  was  organ- 
ised in  1840,  the  first  board  of  trustees  being  the  folJowing  settlers:  l.yman 
Fox,  Mason  Chase,  Joseph  C.  Corbus.  John  Parkinson,  Lyman  Aldrich,  Ben- 
jamin H.  Smith,  John  Worden.  The  first  house  of  worship  wasi  put  up  m 
1844,  this  was  repaired  in  1848,  and  the  present  brick  church  bears  the  date 
of  1876.     Rev.  Isaac  Bennett  preached  at  Girard  in  tlie  sixties. 


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194  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

Union  City. 

Tn  almost  every  locality  the  Methodists  were  the  pioneers  in  church 
work  in  Branch  county.  At  Union  City  they  organized  a  short  time  before 
the  Congregaticnalists,  their  first  class  being  held  in  the  winter  of  1836-37. 
Isaiah  Bennett  and  family  and  Mrs.  Carpenter  Chaffee  are  named  among 
the  first  members.  Coldwater  supplied  some  of  the  first  preachers.  Revs. 
Sabin,  Tibbits  and  Crippen  being;  named  in  this  connection.  Some  time  in 
the  forties  a  frame  church  was  erected,  and  this  gave  place  about  twenty  years 
ago  to  the  handsome  brick  church,  of  modern  design  and  proportions. 

Other  Methodist  Societies. 

The  circuit  of  which  Girard  was  a  part  during  the  forties  comprised 
appointments  at  East  Girard,  West  Girard,  Eronson,  Clizbe's  (now  Quincy), 
Brooks  schoolhouse,  Branch,  Day's,  and  Union.  There  was.  a  Methodist 
society  on  Shock's  prairie  in  Butler  township  as  early  as  1838,  the  Shook 
and  VVisner  families  being  prominent  in  this  organization. 

■A  Methodist  class  was  formed  in  Kinderhook  in  the  winter  of  1S36-37, 
being  a  part  of  the  Coldwater  circuit  at  first  and  later  of  Gilead. 

The  church  at  'Snow  Prairie  was  organized  in  1857,  the  class  consist- 
ing of  T\lr.  and  Mrs.  Charles  Warburton.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  John  EHngman  and 
Mrs.  William  I.amoreaux.  The  frame  church  on  section  16  was  erected  in 
1863,  the  first  trustees  being;  John  Reynolds,  Lucius  Williams,  John  Bas- 
sett",  Charles  Brook,  Charles  Warburton,  Nicholas  G.  Ellis,  Ebenezer  McMil- 
lan, ColHns  Fenner  antl  Moses  M.  Oimstead, 

The  Methodists  in  Gilead  township  outnumbered  the  followers  of 
Bishop  Chase  even  while  that  divine  was  endeavoring  to  build  up  an  organi- 
zation and  school  in  the  locality.  This  is  alleged  as  one  reason  why  the 
bishop  l>ecame  discouraged  with  Gilead  and  went  to  Ilhnois.  In  May,  1836, 
a  .-^ort  time  before  the  departure  of  the  Chase  family  for  Illinois,  a  Meth- 
odist class  was  formed  at  the  house  of  Benjamin  Booth,  his  wife  and  a  Mrs. 
Jones  being  the  only  ones  present,  but  the  next  meeting  being  attended  by 
t)ie  Williams,  Bogardus  and  Smith  families,  and  E.  B.  Williams  becoming 
the  first  class  leader.  The  class  belonged  to  various  circuits  for  thirty  years, 
and  in  1869  the  Gilead  circuit  was  set  off,  as  elsewhere  stated.  The  church 
building  on  section  S  was  dedicated  in  August.  1862,  and  the  first  board  of 
trustees  were  the  following;  Daniel  Marsh,  Elisha  B.  Williams,  Samuel 
Booth,  John  Feller,  Edward  M.  Williams,  Don  C.  Mather,  Horace  C.  Will- 
iams. 

The  active  Methodist  societies,  with  r^rular  preachmg.  now  m  Branch 
county  are  as  follows :  Coldwater,  ^tincy,  Bronson,  Union  City  and  Sher- 
wood are  the  five  Methodist  churches  in  the  one  city  and  the  four  villages  of 
the  coimty.  Some  particular  account  of  these  has  been  given.  We  take 
occasion  here  to  state  that  in  our  endeavor  to  gather  information  concerning 
the  religious  societies  of  the  county,  a  letter  was  sent  to  the  pastor  of  every 
active  church.  "Where  no  response  was  made,  we  have  not  been  able  to  give 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  193 

as  much  information  as  we  otherwise  might  have  done.  Besides  the  five 
Methodist  Episcopal  churches  just  mentioned,  the  others  in  the  county  are 
the  following;,  taking-  them  hy  townships  and  beginning  with  Butler :  South 
Butler  or  Butler  Center,  and  Herricksville  or  North  Butler;  these  both  have 
church  buildings,  the  present  pastor  being  Rev.  B.  Silverthome.  Girard 
has  one  society  with  a  church  building,  as  already  noted,  with  two  classes 
besides,  one  at  Hodunk  and  one  in  the  Cotmell  district.  The  pastor  in 
charge  is  Rev.  J.  F.  Bowerman.  There  are  no  societies  in  the  townships  of 
Union  and  Sherwood,  CoMwater,  Qiiincy  and  Bronson  other  tlian  those  in 
the  city  and  villages.  Matteson,  Batavia,  Ovid,  and  California  have  never 
had  any  organized  Methodist  churches.  In  Algansee,  the  Algansee  or  Fish- 
ers society  has  a  good  brick  building.  Kinderhook  has  one  society  with  a 
biu'lding  at  its  center.  Tn  Gtlead  there  are  two,  South  Gilead  and  North 
Gilead,  each  with  a  building.  Noble  has  one  society  with  a  building  erected 
near  the  townhouse  in  1903,  In  all  thei'e  are  thirteen  Methodist  Episcopal 
church  buildings  in  the  county. 

Free  Methodist  Church  of  Sherwood. 
[The  following  sketch  has  been  furnished  for  publication  in  this  work.] 

Rev.  John  Ellison  was  the  instrviment  in  the  hands  of  God  to  raise  up 
the  first  Free  Methodist  class  in  this  place  and  in  the  spring  of  1866  a  church 
was  erected — the  first  Free  Methodist  church  in  the  state  of  Michigan.  Tlie 
following  September  the  annual  conference  was  held  in  the  new  church  and 
it  was  dedicated  to  God's  service  by  Rev.  Joseph  Travers.  Twenty-six  names 
were  on  the  first  enrollment,  but  time,  death  and  distance  have  done  their 
work  and  Bro.  John  Coward  is  the  only  charter  member  left  in  the  church. 
Rev.  E.  T.  Roljerts,  the  father  of  Free  Methodism,  and  Rev.  E.  T.  Hart 
rendered  faithful  service  as  district  elders  in  those  pioneer  days.  The  first 
ministers  sent  to  this  work  were  D.  W.  Bishop  and  B.  R.  Jones,  the  Ixiy 
preacher,  as  he  was  then  called.  Following  these  were :  Bro.  Gitchel,  Charles 
Cnsick,  T.  C.  Frink,  Bro.  Forbs,  Bro.  Billings,  Ero.  Marshall,  L.  Lezenring, 
M.  D.  Baldwin,  G.  R.  Tompkins,  Bro.  Baxter,  George  Tliompson,  N.  R. 
Woods,  J.  Baker,  E.  Bradfield,  W.  S.  McDivett,  G.  W.  C.  Smith.  A.  Brad- 
field,  P.  S.  Shoemaker,  C.  H.  Jerome,  D.  J.  Vanantwerp,  I.  L,  King,  R.  L.  ■ 
Scamerhorn,  C.  M.  Miller.  The  names  of  charter  members  are:  George 
Mover' and  wife,  William  Davis  and  wife,  Peter  Rums^  and  wife,  Bro. 
Newton  and  wife  and  sister,  John  Tomlinson  and  wife,  Ero,  Maston  and  wife 
and  daughters,  Orpha,  Marette  and  Mirtie,  C.  Hauganbaugh  and  wife  and 
daughter  Martha.  M.  J.  Drook  and  S.  Drook,  John  Coward,  AHva  V.  Moyer, 
Waid  Bond,  Ann  Waugh.  Sister  Bartlett. 

Besides  the  Sherwood  church,  there  are  also  four  other  Free  Methodist 
societies  in  the  county,  one  in  the  city  of  Coldwater  on  Perkins  street,  an- 
other in  the  southwestern  part  of  Quincy  township,  a  third  in  Algansee,  and 
the  fourth  in  Bethel.  The  Coldwater  .society  has  this  year,  igo6,  built  a  new 
house  of  worship.  Rev.  John  R.  Poet  ministers  at  present  to  all  four  of 
these  churches.    AH  have  church  buildings. 


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196  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

Baptist  Churches. 
Coldzwter. 

The  history  of  the  Baptist  church  of  Coldwater  has  been  carefully  com- 
piled from  the  church  records  by  Mr.  A.  R.  Burroughs  in  response  to  a  re- 
quest from  the  editor  of  this  work.  The  beginnings  of  the  church  involve 
so  many  pioneer  names  and  circumstances  of  early  days  that  it  is  deemed  best 
to  quote  some  of  the  first  records. 

"  At  a  meeting  of  several  brethren  of  the  Baptist  denomination  held  at 
the  house  of  Hiram  Alden  in  said  village  on  the  evening  of  December  31, 
1834,"  is  the  initial  statement  of  one  minute,  "  it  was  resolv^ed  to  circulate  an 
article  among  the  Baptists  of  the  vicinity  for  the  purpose  of  organizing  a 
Baptist  society.  The  signatures  to  this  article  tell  us  the  pioneer  Baptists 
who  resided  in  the  vicinity  of  Coldwater  viJlage  in  that  early  year,  1835,  and 
who  became  the  nucleus  of  the  first  church.  They  are:  Chauncey  Strong, 
Nathan  Strong,  WilHam  D.  Strong,  George  W.  Arnold,  Hiram  Alden,  Par- 
ley Stockwel!,  Ann  Logan,  Matilda  Alden,  Prudence  Arnold,  Eunice  Strong, 
SaJly  Strong,  Sarah  Strong,  Betsey  Strong,  Sarah  Sheldon,  Nathan  H. 
Strong. 

The  first  conference  of  these  persons  for  the  purpose  of  forming  a 
church  was  held  in  the  village  schoolhouse  January  17,  1835,  ^"'^^  °^  Febru- 
ary nth  a  council  assembled  at  the  house  of  Mr.  Alden,  consisting  of  eld- 
ers and  official  members  from  other  churches,  who  examined  credentials  of 
prospective  members  of  the  local  society  and  concluded  with  the  following 
resolutions :  "  That  we  recognize  the  above-named  brethren  and  sisters  as  a 
regular  Baptist  church,  and  that  Bro.  Powell  preach  on  the  occasion  and 
that  the  moderator  present  the  hand  of  fellowship." 

The  church  has  continued  from  its  organization  until  the  present  time. 
At  first  it  had  no  settled  pastor,  but  was  supplied  a  part  of  the  time  by  Rev. 
E.  Loomis  of  the  Baptist  Home  Missionary  Society.  Rev.  Reuben  Graham 
was  the  first  settled  pastor,  from  Oct.,  1835,  to  Sept.,  1837.  From  this  time 
until  July,  1842,  Rev.  John  Southworth,  Re\'.  Mallory  and  Rev.  W.  B. 
Brown  served  as  pastors. 

The  following  is  a  list  of  the  pastors  who  have  since  served  the  church, 
with  period  of  their  several  pastorates: 

Rev.  James  Davis,  Dec.,   1842 — July,   1844. 

Rev.  J.  A.  Keyes,  Nov.,  1844 — Aug.,  1845. 

Rev.  OHver  Comstock,  Oct.,  1845— June,  1S48. 

Rev.  Anson  P.  Tucker,  Nov.,  1848— May,  1850. 

Rev.  F.  O.  Marsh,  Oct,,  1850— Oct.,  1853. 

Rev.  E.  J.  Covey,  Dec,  1853— June,  1856. 

Rev.  A.  A.  Ellis,  Jan.,  1857— April,  1858. 

Rev.  Edwin  Eaton,  June,  1858 — April,  1866. 

Rev.  E.  Curtis,  Sept.,  1866— Sept.  1868. 

Rev.  N.  Pierce,  Oct.,  1868— Dec.,  1870. 

Rev.  W.  T.  Lowry,  August,  1871— July  i88r. 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  197 

Rev.  J.  H.  Donelly,  Feb..  1882— May,  1884. 

Rev.  J.  H.  Groff,  Sept.,  1884— Nov.,  1885. 

Rev.  J.  P.  Phillips.  Feb.,  i886— Feb.,  1890. 

Rev.  F-  Otheman  Smith,  July,  1890— Feb.,  1894. 

Rev.  Benjamin  Otto,  August,  1894 — Feb..  1897. 

Rev.  Chas.  F.  Vreeland,  March.  1897— -March,  1900. 

Rev.  Ira  D.  Hall,  July.  1900 — May,  1902. 

Rev.   M.  A.  Graybiel,  July,   1902 — Continues. 

From  the  time  of  organization  up  to  the  present  time  the  church  has 
been  served  by  twenty-three  pastors,  on  an  average  of  three  years  to  eacli 
pastorate. 

December  30th,  1843,  the  church  voted  to  build  a  hort.ise  of  worship, 
and  soon  thereafter  a  frame  building  was  erected  on  the  lot  where  the  Old 
Bank  Building  now  stands  (Chicago  and  Monroe  streets).  Here  the  church 
worshipped  until  the  winter  of  1852-53,  when  the  lot  was  sold  and  the  build- 
ing moved  to  the  northwest  comer  of  Monroe  and  Pearl  streets. 

The  present  church  edifice  on  the  northwest  comer  of  Pear!  and  Divi- 
sion streets  was  erected  during  the  pastorate  of  Rev.  Edwin  Eaton.  1863. 
and  was  dedicated  free  from  debt  in  August.  1865.  and  was  enlarged  dur- 
ing the  pastorate  of  Rev.  Otheman  Smith.  The  origina!  cost  of  the  church 
was  $25,000,  and  the  extension  between  three  and  four  thousand.  A  pipe 
org^n  costing  $2,500,  built  in  the  church  during  the  pastorate  of  Rev.  W.  T. 
Lowry  in  1876.  and  a  fine  bell  have  been  added  to  the  church  building  since 
its  erection.  During  the  first  year  of  the  pastorate  of  Rev.  M.  A.  Gray- 
biel the  church  made  purchase  of  a  fine  house  and  property,  northeast  corner 
of  Division  and  Washington  streets,  costing,  with  improvements^  $3,750.  to 
be  used  as  a  church  parsonage.  During  the  years  1905-6  the  church  by  gift 
of  individual  members  placed  eight  memorial  windows  in  the  audience  room 
at  a  cost  of  $1,000. 

The  present  officers  of  the  church  are:  Everett  F.  Collins,  clerk:  W.  H. 
Simons,  treasurer;  H.  C.  Simons.  C,  T.  Yapp,  H.  B.  George,  E.  A.  Dunton. 
Dr.  George  Ferguson.  N.  A.  Angell.  deacons;  W.  H.  Simons,  Eli  Ball.  Dr, 
F.  G.  Legg.  Clarence  T.  Yapp,  Thomas  A.  Hilton,  Zelotes  G.  Osbom, 
trustees. 

From  the  best  infomiation  to  he  obtained,  the  Sabbath-school  was  or- 
ganized during  the  pastorate  of  Rev.  J.  A.  Keyes  in  1845.  The  present 
superintendent  is  Henry  B.  George. 

Quim-y. 

The  persons  composing  the  meeting  for  organization  of  a  Baptist  soci- 
ety, heM  in  the  schoolhouse  in  Hog  Creek  district  of  Qmncy  township  June 
27,  1846,  represented  in  the  main  the  core  of  the  Baptist  adherents  in  that 
township  at  that  dav.  Thev  were:  Alfred  Wilmarth,  George  Boon,  Marcus 
Muckey,  1.  W.  Pratt.  Simon  Gager,  Francis  Ransom.  Ansel  Nichols,  Samuel 
Etheridge.  Sillman  Hedge.  -Mrs.  T.  H,  Wilmarth,  Mary  Boon.  .Mmira 
Brown,   Lucetta  H.   Pratt,   Rebecca  Gager,  Chloe  Ransom.   Susan   Nichols, 


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198  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

Cynthia  M.  Etherjdge,  Aseneth  Nichols,  Sally  Muckey,  Mrs.  Asa  Bowen. 
A  council  in  August  of  the  same  year  recognized  them  as  a  church,  and  at- 
tached it  to  the  Hillsdale  association.  In  September,  1855,  forty  members 
were  dismissed  to  form  the  Second  Aigansee  Baptist  church. 

The  iiTSt  meetings  were  held  in  the  Hog  Creek  church,  soon  the  school- 
house  in  Quincy  village  became  the  place  of  worship,  this  alternating  with 
the  Mudge  schoolhouse  until  the  erection  of  a  house  o£  worship,  which  was 
completed  in  the  spring  of  1854. 

A[gcmsce. 

As  mentioned  in  the  sketch  of  the  Onincy  church,  in  1855  a  division  of 
its  membership  occurred  and  about  forty  persons  living  mainly  in  Aigansee 
township  formed  what  was  known  as  "  the  Second  Aigansee  Baptist  church." 
The  First  Baptist  church  of  Aigansee  was  formed  in  1854,  their  meetings, 
during  their  existence  of  twelve  years,  being  held  in  the  Wakeman  school- 
house.  The  Second  church  was  recognized  by  a  council  on  March  13,  1856, 
and  the  charter  members  were  as  follows  :  Francis  D.  Ransom.  Phares  Chit- 
tenden, Jason  L.  Ransom,  John  H.  Ransom,  John  Ransom,  Zebina  G.  Trim, 
Joel  Campbell,  David  Hillman,  John  C.  Perring,  Benjamin  Bishop,  Amos 
Hough,  Petar  Leighton,  Nathan  I^ighton,  Spencer  Cory,  John  Cory,  Henry 
W.  Waterbury,  James  A.  Ransom,  William  \V.  Potter,  David  Robb,  and 
Sisters  C.  Ranson,  L.  Chittenden,  C.  Ransom,  H.  Ransom,  U.  Trim,  M. 
Campbell,  H.  Hillman,  L.  Perring,  L.  Bishop,  L.  Bishop,  O.  Hough.  S. 
Jordan,  L.  Fisher.  O.  Cory,  S.  A.  Barber,  J.  A.  Ransom.  Margaret  Hillman, 
M.  Hoxie,  L.  Robb.  The  church  building,  on  the  south  line  of  section  2. 
was  erected  in  1S68. 

Union  City. 

The  pastor  of  the  Baptist  church  at  Union  City.  Rev.  H.  Z.  Davis,  has 
furnished  the  following  facts  concerning  the  history  of  his  church.  The 
first  Baptist  church  of  Union  City  was  oi^nize<:l  May  14,  1870,  was  recog- 
nized by  a  council  on  October  13,  1870,  and  was  received  into  the  St.  Joseph 
Valley  Association,  May  13,  1871.  The  church  met  for  business  meetings 
and  worship  in  a  hall,  and  later  at  Mr.  Barrett's  home,  until  the  present 
frame  house  O'f  worship  was  erected  and  dedicated  on  February  24,  1886. 
the  church  being  located  on  the  south  side  of  the  village. 

The  charter  members  of  this  chvirch  were:  Lucius  Blosson,  Alma 
Blosson,  Ira  Lake.  Clark  C.  I^ke,  Zeruch  I.^ke,  Cliarlotte  Prentiss,  Mary 
Johnson.  The  successive  pastors  who  have  served  the  congregation  have 
been :  William  Pack,  Samuel  A.  Cole,  S.  G.  Brvmdage.  I.  H.  Ainsworth, 
William  Haas,  B.  Ashton,  T.  E.  Hauser,  E.  D.  Way,  H.  Z.  Davis. 

Branson. 
The  Baptist  church  of  Bronson  was  organized  in   1857  at  a   meeting 
held  in  the  house  in  which  Mr.  C.  M.  Van  Every  now  (May.   1906)   lives. 
This  house  was  built  in  1839  by  Alonzo  Waterman,  aftenvards  of  Coldwater. 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  199 

The  original  members  were:  Wildman  Bennett,  Ann  Bennett,  David  M. 
Johnson,  Jane  Johnson,  N.  O.  Brown,  Mrs.  M.  J.  Brown,  S,  H.  Collins,  Mrs. 
F.  Coiiins.  Bro.  O.  Oliver,  Sister  E.  Allen,  Bro.  J.  Boughman,  Sister  A. 
Boughnian,  Sister  Eeesmer,  Sister  J.  A.  Carr,  Sister  S.  Earle,  Dr.  W.  Byms, 
Sister  Atwater. 

Meetings  were  conducted  from  1857  to  1864  under  Licentiate  A.  J. 
Hunt,  Elder  J.  Southworth  and  Elder  Pease.  The  building  of  the  house  of 
worship  was  commenced  in  the  spring  of  1861,  but  on  account  of  limited 
means  was  not  opened  for  worship  until  January  22,  1S64.  The  building  is 
stiii  standing  as  first  put  up  forty  years  ago.  Rev'  J.  Kelley  fallowed  Rev. 
Pease,  remaining  until  Feb.  18,  1865,  and  in  March.  1865,  Elder  Phillip 
Rowden  became  pastor.  A  pipe  organ  was  purchased  in  1878.  Re\'.  James 
H.  Gagnier,  the  present  pastor,  began  his  work  with  the  church  June  i,  1904. 

In  the  northwestern  part  of  Bronson  township  is  an  organized  Baptist 
society  known  as  the  Shawtown  Baptist  church.  It  holds  its  meetings  in 
the  schoolhouse  of  district  No.  7. 

There  are  thus  eight  regular  Baptist  organizations  in  the  county.  About 
1875  there  was  a  Baptist  society  in  Ovid  township.  It  was  disbanded  about 
1895,  though  the  church  building,  a  brick  structure,  is  still  standing  and  is 
known  as  "  the  Lockwood  church." 

Girard. 
The  First  Baptist  church  of  Girard  was  organized  at  the  house  of  Will- 
iam Van  Blarcum  in  Girard,  June  8,  1859,  the  charter  members,  who  had 
previously  been  connected  with  churches  at  Coldwater  and  Tekonsha,  be- 
ing as  follows:  William  Van  Blarcum,  E.  M.  Waldo,  George  B.  Johnson, 
Amasa  R.  Day,  E.  T.  Todd,  Marv  Smith,  Harriet  C.  Day,  Sarah  Burr, 
Mary  Van  Blarcum,  Matilda  B.  Wa'klo,  Alvina  Todd,  Eunice  L.  Burr,  Mary 
Olney. 

Tlie  first  regular  hoiise  of  worship  was  the  old  district  schoolhouse.  whicli 
had  been  purchased  and  donated  to  the  society  by  William  Van  Blarcum  and 
remodeled  for  church  purposes.  The  building  of  the  present  church  was 
begun  in  1876,  but  it  was  not  finished  until  several  years  later.  Rev.  E.  R. 
Clark  closed  his  pastorate  of  two  years  March  31.  1880.  October  i,  1880, 
Rev.  S.  A.  Cole  began  ser\'ing  the  church  and  continued  until  Aug.  i,  1884. 
Kindcrhook. 
The  only  other  regidar  Baptist  society  in  the  county  witli  a  building  of 
its  own  is  that  of  Kinderhook.  It  was  organized  Oct,  25,  1856.  From  that 
time  to  the  present  it  has  continued  to  be  an  active  church  organization,  nev- 
er long  without  a  pastor  preaching  regularly.  Rev.  Charles  A.  Cutler  its 
latest  minister,  resigned  in  1905. 

Free-Will  or  Free  Baptist  Churches. 
One  of  the  earliest  societies  of  this  denomination  was  formed  at  Girard, 
May   10,    1849.     The  thirteen  original   members  were :     L.   Y,   Lmibocker, 


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200  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

Hiadama  Tjnibocker,  John  Loring,  N.  M.  Millard,  Cynthia  Millard,  Qiarles 
I-ane,  Henry  Aurend,  Matilda  Aurend,  Alexander  Ladow,  John  Smart.  An- 
na Cntler,  Mary  E.  Cutler.  The  congregation  erected  a  building  in  Girard 
village,  on  Marshal  street,  just  north  of  the  regular  Baptist  church,  in  1856. 

West  Kinderkook. 

Rev.  E.  W.  Hughes,  pastor  of  the  Free-Will  Baptist  church  at  West 
Kinderhook,  states  that  the  society  was  formed  March  10.  1850,  by  J.  H, 
Miner  and  Elder  Hadle^'.  The  first  members  have  all  passed  away.  The 
church  was  incorporated  in  1S82,  and  also  in  that  year  the  brick  church  which 
is  now  the  house  of  worship  Avas  constructed.  The  present  membership  is 
about  forty-five. 

Bethel. 

The  Free-Will  Baptist  church  of  Bethel  was  organized  August  28, 
1853.  For  many  years  the  meetings  were  held  in  the  Butcher  schoolhouse  in 
section  i,  but  in  1903  a  house  of  worship  was  erected  in  the  same  locality  by 
the  congregation.     Among  the  earliest  members  of  this  church  were:     Orrin 

B.  and  Martha     .S.  Cummings,  James  and  Abigail  Thurston,  Arwin,  Peleg 

C.  and  Mercy  Bates,  Alanson  and  Ann  Harris,  Hiram  Olmstead,  Mrs.  Mary 
Carmer. 

Batai'ia. 

A  more  complete  record  of  the  Eatavia  church  has  been  furnished  the 
editor  by  Mrs.  E.  C.  Mintline,  cierk  of  the  church.  The  church'  originated 
in  a  series  of  meetings  held  in  the  old  brick  schoolhouse  near  Batavia  station 
by  Rev.  Lura  Mains,  A  council  which  met  in  the  schoolhouse  Feb.  28,  1880, 
organized  a  church  with  six  charter  members,  namely,  Myron  Draper, 
Augtista  Draper,  Dewitt  Draper,  William  Westerman,  W.  R.  Card,  Emily 
Card.  W,  R.  Card  is  the  only  charter  member  remaining.  Other  names 
added  to  the  membership  the  next  day  were :  Anna  G.  Shay,  David  J.  Per- 
rin,  Betsey  Perrin,  Alonzo  Olmstead,  Christina  Olmstead.  A  plot  of  ground 
from  the  John  Sheneman  farm  was  purchased  in  1880  and  in  the  autumn  of 
the  following  year  the  neat  little  church  building  was  completed.  Sabbath- 
school  was  conducted  from  the  first  and  in  1884  the  Woman's  Missionary 
Auxiliary  was  formed.  The  church  property  is  now  valued  at  $1,500,  and 
the  members  are  about  thirty  in  number. 

Some  of  the  prominent  members  past  and  present  who  have  been  iden- 
tified with  this  church  are:  George  Barnard,  Elizabeth  Gray,  E.  D.  Hark- 
ness,  for  twenty-three  years  officiaily  connected  with  the  church;  C.  H.  Aus- 
tin, treasurer  for  the  past  twenty-three  years;  Mrs.  E.  M.  Jordan,  Mrs.  John 
Sheneman,  Asa  Russell,  and  others, 

Presbyterian  Churches. 
The  First  Presbyterian  church  of  Cotdwater  originated  in  pioneer  times, 
and  the  names  of  well  known  first  settlers  are  included  in  its  meeting  for  or- 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  201 

g^nization.  Tliis  meeting-  was  held  in  the  village  sdiooihouse  Sept.  30,  1837, 
Rev.  P.  W.  Warriner  preached  the  sermon,  and  the  charter  members  consti- 
tuting the  6rst  church  were:  Luther  and  Clarissa  Stiles.  James  and  Abigail 
Smith,  Edmond  and  Catherine  Sloan,  E.  G.  Fuller,  Ambrose  and  Eliza  Grow. 
Mrs.  Alexander  Reynolds,  Mary  Ann  Revnolds,  Sophirmia  Reynolds.  Mrs. 
Amaty  Cmson,  Mary  Smith.  James  SmitJi,  Jr.,  Lydia  Smith.  Prominent 
among  the  members  who  were  soon  added  were  Silas  A.  Holbrook,  Will- 
iam H.  Cross,  and  Alexander  Reynolds. 

During  the  first  few  years  the  meetings  were  l^eld  in  the  schoolhouses 
on  Hudson  street  or  on  Gay  street,  and  also  in  the  temporary  court-house 
room  in  the  "  Coon  Pen  "  building,  elsewhere  described.  A  church  organi- 
zation according  to  legal  form  was  effected  at  a  meeting  in  the  "  Coon  Pen," 
Aug.  9,  1843,  and  about  the  same  time  the  building  of  a  church  was  under- 
taken. The  edifice,  which  was  of  frame,  was  dedicated  in  the  fall  of  1844. 
under  the  pastorate  of  S.  C.  Hickok.  This  served  as  the  church  home  until 
the  sixties.  Both  the  Methodist  and  Baptist  congregations  had  erected  fine 
churches,  and  the  Presbyterians  built  one  still  larger.  The  first  plans  were 
laid  in  1864,  but  it  was  not  until  Oct.  12,  1869.  that  the  present  brick  build- 
ing was  dedicated. 

Revs.  Warriner.  Charles  W.  Gimey  and  Louis  Mills  were  the  principal 
pastors  during  the  early  years  of  the  church.  Rev.  S.  C.  Hickok  served  from 
1844  to  1847.  Following  him  were  Elihti  P.  Marvin,  O.  W.  Mather.  R.  S. 
Goodman,  from  1853  to  i860:  Horace  C.  Hovey,  G.  L.  Foster,  W.  C.  Por- 
ter, J.  Gordon  Jones,  from  April.  1S72.  to  October,  1878;  H.  P.  ColUn, 
Dec.,  1878,  to  March  31,  1905.  Rev.  Willis  L.  Gelston.  the  present  pastor. 
hegan  his  work  in  Sept..  1905. 

Qiiincy. 

The  First  Presbyterian  church  of  Quincy  was  organized  Feb.  2'^,  1857. 
the  following  persons  associating  themselves  into  an  organization :  Will- 
iam N.  Carter,  JuHa  Carter,  Marcia  Potter,  Mrs.  J.  W.  Chapin.  William 
Hughes,  Jeremiah  B.  Whelan,  Elijah  Leland.  Mrs.  William  Hughes,  Mrs. 
J.  B,  WTielan  and  Mrs.  Withington  were  soon  added  to  the  original  member- 
ship. The  society  was  small  during  its  first  years  and  had  difficulty  in  main- 
taining its  organization.  The  church  building  was  not  constructed  until 
i860.  Since  that  time  it  has  carrieti  the  usual  church  activities  with  but  few 
interruptions. 

CalifornM. 

California  township  has  been  a  center  of  Presbyterian  activity  from  an 
early  day.  At  a  meeting  for  organization  of  a  Presbyterian  church,  held  in 
the  schoolhouse  at  Hall's  Comers,  April  11,  J840,  the  following  well  known 
pioneers  associated  themselves  to  form  a  church:  Josqjh  W.  Lawrence.  Sr.. 
Sybil  I^wrence.  Thomas  Pratt,  Aima  Pratt,  Joseph  W.  Lawrence,  Jr..  Susan 
N.  Lawrence.  Ezra  S,  E.  Brainard,  Walter  H.  Lathrop,  Emeline  Lathrop, 
Mrs,   Lucy   Robbins.     Their  building,  which   is  located  at  California  post- 


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202  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

office,  was  completed  and  dedicated  in   1871,  at  a  cost  of  about  twenty-five 
hundred  dollars. 

The  United  Presbyterians  and  the  Reformed  Presbyterians  also  gained 
a  foothold  in  California  township.  A  society  of  the  former  denomination 
was  org'anized  June  16,  1865,  some  of  its  original  members  being  Wilham 
C.  Thon^on,  Alexander  Thompson,  Thomas  Hall,  John  S.  Patterson,  Will- 
iam Stewart,  Oscar  Jameson,  Alexander  Vance. 

Congregational  Churches. 
Union  City. 

The  First  Congregational  church  of  Union  City,  Branch  county.  Mich- 
igan, was  organized  March  7th,  1837.  Tlie  meeting  was  conducted  by  Rev. 
Calvin  Clark  of  Homer.  The  following  sixteen  persons  having  letters  of 
dismission  and  recommendation  from  other  churches,  and  two  on  confession 
of  their  faith,  entered  into  covenant:  Chester  Hammond,  Fanny  Hammond, 
Ellen  F,  Hammond.  Alphens  Saunders,  Ludna  Saunders,  Lewis  Hawley, 
Charlotte  Hawley,  David  Kilboum,  Clarinda  Kilbourn,  Justus  B.  Euell,  Fme- 
line  Buell,  Thomas  B.  Buell.  Charles  A.  Lincoln,  Chares  H.  Coates,  Esther 
Maxfield.  Sarah  Jane  Hurd,  Mary  Ann  Saunders,  Charlotte  Bernard. 

March  i6th.  1839,  the  church  became  connected  with  the  Marshall 
Presbytery  on  thle  "Plan  of  Union  of  1801."  At  the  formation  of  the 
Marshall  Conference  of  Congregational  Churches  in  Union  City,  January- 
13th,  1841,  the  church  united  with  that  body.  In  November,  1837.  Rev. 
Charles  W.  Gumey,  a  Presbyterian  minister,  was  employed  to  lalx>r  in  the 
ministry  Oif  the  Gospel  with  this  church,  which  he  continuetl  to  do  until  June, 
1839.  In  the  following  October  Rev,  Elijah  Buck,  also  a  Presbyterian  min- 
ister, was  employed,  and  continued  his  labors  until  September,  1840.  The 
ministry  of  Rev.  L.  Smith  Hobart  commenced  on  the  Sabbath,  the  first  day 
of  November,  1840.  The  services  were  held  in  the  district  schoolhouse, 
which  was  the  usual  place  of  public  worship.  After  the  completion  of  a 
pastorate  of  eight  years,  he  was  dismissed  bv  the  advice  of  a  council,  Novem- 
ber 2nd,  1848. 

The  first  house  of  worship  occupied  by  the  church  was  erected  on  High 
street.  This  was  dedicated  December  24th,  1840.  It  was  furnished  with  a 
suitable  bell  in  May,  1843,  enlarged  in  1850,  and  sold  in  1869. 

Rev.  Henry  C.  Morse  commenced  his  ministry  with  the  church  Nov. 
5th,  1848.  His  work  closed  in  March,  1853.  Rev.  Adam  S.  Kedzie  followed 
in  the  ministry  without  interval.  His  vrork  ended  in  the  month  of  September, 
1854.  Rev.  Joseph  S.  Edwards  was  engaged  in  November,  1854,  and  con- 
tinued his  work  about  six  months.  In  December,  1855,  Rev.  Reuben  Hatch 
commenced  his  labors  with  the  church  and  remained  until  April,  1859.  Dur- 
ing this  period  the  enterprise  of  building  the  present  brick  church  edifice  was 
undertaken.  Rev,  Sereno  W.  Streeter  commenced  his  ministry  here  in  No- 
veml>er,    1859.      He    was    installed    as    pastor    by    an    ecclesiastical    council 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  203 

in  February,  1863.  In  November,  1869,  he  was  dismissed  by  a  council, 
closing  his  ministry  of  ten  years. 

The  present  brick  church  edifice  was  dedicated  February  5th.  1S62. 
The  ministry  of  Rev.  Emory  G.  Chaddock  began  January  25th.  1870.  Dur- 
ing this  year  the  church  edifice  was  reseated,  the  gallery  raised  and  extended, 
thus  adding  accommodations  for  a  much  larger  audience.  Mr.  Chaddock 
was  dismissed  by  the  advice  of  a  council  December  18th,  1873.  On  the  sec- 
ond of  April,  1872.  the  records  and  papers  of  the  church  were  wholly  con- 
sumed by  fire.  The  chapel  in  the  rear  of  the  church  edifice  was  built  hy 
DeaccMi  David  R.  Cooley,  and  completed  October  30th,  1873.  ^*  '"^  ^°^^  ^'^ 
$850,  including  the  furnishings. 

Rev.  Warren  F.  Day  commencetl  his  ministry  with  this  church  Febru- 
ary 1st,  1874,  and  closed  it  October  12th.  1877.  Tlie  pastorate  of  Rev.  Hei- 
muth  H.  Van  Auken  tjegan  December  30th,  1877,  and  continued  until  Feb- 
ruary 22nd,  1885.  During  this  time  the  present  chapel  was  enlarged  and 
repairs  were  made  in  the  main  building.  The  «rgan  was  purchased  and  the 
alcove  built  for  it  at  the  rear  of  the  pulpit. 

Dr.   Horatio  N.   Burton  entered  upon  his  labors  as  pastor  April   3rd, 

1885,  and  continued  with  the  church  until  January  14th.  1888.  when  he  re- 
signed on  account  of  failing  health.  During  his  pastorate  the  church  build- 
ing was  repaired,  painted  and  frescoed  at  a  cost  of  $1,500.  The  Order  of 
Deaconesses  was  instituted  in  1886, 

Rev.  James  R.  Knodell  was  called  to  the  church  as  its  pastor,  beginning 
his  work  March  i8th,  1888,  and  continuing  until  September  27th,  1891, 
Rev.  Harlow  S.  Mills,  having  been  called  to  the  pastorate  of  the  church, 
commenced  his  labors  November  ist,  1891.  and  continued  until  September 
27th,  1896.  February  7th,  1897,  Rev.  Joseph  A.  Barnes  began  his  work 
as  pastor  of  the  church,  continuing  his  labors  until  June  24th,  1900. 

For  a  number  of  yeat^  the  Church  Helpers  had  been  accumulating  a 
fund  for  the  purchase  of  a  parsonage.  In  1899  Mr.  Thomas  B.  Buell  pre- 
sented the  church  with  a  deed  of  property  antj  a  sum  of  money  toward  the 
same  object.  In  October,  1900,  an  additional  gift  was  made  by  Mrs.  Sarah - 
Case  in  memory  of  her  mother.  Mrs.  Thomas  Buell.  The  union  of  these 
fimds  and  gifts  enabled  the  church  to  acquire  the  large  and  beautiful  resi- 
dence near  the  church  which  is  to  be  known  as  the  Buell  irarsonage. 

Rev.  David  L,  Holbrook,  the  present  pastor,  entered  upon  his  work 
November  4th.  1900.     The  church  was  incorporated  January  i,   1901. 

Alga^i'Scc. 

The  First  Congr^ational  church  of  Algansee  was  organized  Aug.  26 

1886.  by  Rev-.  E.  D.  Curtis  of  Grand  Rapids,  who  preached  the  sermon,  and 
Rev.  J.  R.  Preston,  who  gave  the  right  hand  of  fellowship  to  the  following 
charter  members:  M.  B.  Wakeman.  Mrs..  Abigail  Wakeman,  R.  D.  Tift, 
Mrs,  Rosp.na  Tift,  Miss  Lizzie  Tift.  H,  W.  Hungerford.  Mrs.  Sophia  Hun- 
gerford  Miss  Mary  G.  Hungerford,  Mrs.  Lettie  Braman,  Mrs.  Tlieresa 
Cleveland,  Mrs.  Maria  Pridgeon.  Mrs.  Anna  C.  Webber,  Miss  Lizzie  Duggs, 


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204  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

Miss  Lillie  Draper.  Meetings  were  held  in  the  schoolhouse  until  a  suitable 
church  building  was  erected  and  dedicated  January  ii,  1903,  at  an  expense 
of  $2,500. 

The  churth  has  been  served  by  the  following  named  pastors:  Revs.  T- 
R.  Preston,  E.  A.  Childs,  F.  W.  Brown,  J.  R.  Edgerton.  A.  A.  Luce,  N.  D. 
Lanpere,  C.  E.  Groves,  Winslow,  Joliln  Gordon,  Herbert  A.  Kern,  Wil- 
fred Frost,  George  Brown,  Perry  D.  Gray,  who  is  now  in  bis  third  year. 

Gilcad. 

One  of  the  oldest  Congregational  societies  in  the  county  was 
that  formed  at  John  McKiniey's  residence  in  northwest  Gilead  township, 
Dec.  25,  1S47.  Those  forming  the  society,  while  subscribing  to  the  Congre- 
gational form  of  government,  adhered  to  the  Presbyterian  "  confession  of 
faith  and  doctrine."  The  actual  organization  of  the  society  occurred  at 
Emerson  Marsh's  house,  and  the  first  members  were:  Emerson,  Maria  and 
Martha  K  Marsh,  George  W.,  FYancis  C,  Mary  and  Rebecca  Bull,  Will- 
iam S.  and  Sarah  W.  Evans,  Jason  and  Polly  R.  Harris,  John,  Jean- 
ette  and  Margaret  McKinley,  Stephen  and  Margaret  McMillan,  Eme- 
line,  Caroline  and  Polly  Ried,  Kafherine  and  Deborah  Freeman.  Betsey, 
Clarissa  and  Electa  Smith,  Richard  C.  Dickinson,  Walter  O.  Richards,  Eliz- 
abeth Hale,  Eunice  Fuller,  Hannah  Gaines. 

The  church  withdrew  from  its  Presbyterian  connection  in  1876-77  and 
became  a  purely  Congregational  society.  About  1864,  in  conjunction  with 
the  Methodists  of  Giiead.  this  society  built  the  imion  church,  which  stands 
near  Lake  Gilead  on  section  5.  Rev.  J.  R.  Bonney  acted  as  pastor  of  this 
church  from'  1881   to  1885. 

Besides  the  foregoing  there  are  also  four  other  Congregational  societies 
in  the  county,  known  as  the  Matteson,  Bethel,  North  Batavia  and  Kinder- 
hook  Congregational  churches.  All  of  these  have  churdi  buildings.  The 
Matteson  church  was  organized  March  9,  18S9.  by  Rev.  J.  M.  Sutherland  in 
Bennett's  Hall,  east  of  the  store  at  the  head  of  Matteson  Lake.  Albert  A. 
.Luce  was  chairman  of  the  meeting  at  which  the  church  was  organized. 

Branson. 

The  Congregational  church  at  Bronson  was  organized  in  a  meeting  at 
Rose's  Hall,  May  7,  1868.  Five  ladies  constituted  the  charter  member- 
ship, their  names  being  Mrs.  Isabella  Waite,  Mrs.  Mary  Shepard,  Mrs.  Har- 
riet Nott,  Mrs.  Harriet  Fellows,  Mrs.  Cornelia  Babcock.  The  legal  society 
was  not  organized  until  March  21,  1870,  when  Christopher  G.  Babcock.  F. 
A.  Waite,  George  F.  Giliam,  Reuben  M.  Roberts  and  Jason  Shepard  were 
elected  trustees.  Of  these  trusteees  Mr.  Babcock  was  made  treasurer  and 
Mr.  Waite  clerk. 

The  names  of  the  ministers  who  have  been  pastors  of  the  church  are 
the  following:  John  Randolph  Bonney,  from  Feb..  1868-,  to  June,  1878; 
Frank  B.  Olds,  Sept.  26,  1878,  to  the  spring  of  1879;  J.  R.  Bonney  again  in 
j88o;  lohn  M.  Sutherland,  Mav,  1887;  G.  F.  Holcombe;  Albert  E.  Seibert, 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  205 

Sept.  5,  1890,  to  Oct.  30,  1892;  Henry  A.  Decker.  Sept.  12.  1893.  to  March 
J2,  1895;  Charles  H.  Seaver.  June  i.  1895:  Frank  H.  I.x>ckwoocl,  Jan., 
1897;  David  G.  Blair,  Nov.  i.  1898,  to  May  29.  1904;  William  W.  Sdiu- 
maker,  Aug.  5.  1904.  to  Sept.  24,  1905 ;  Henry  Park  Collin,  Nov.  19,  1905, 
who  is  the  present  pastor. 

In  1872.  during  the  first  pastorate  of  Mr.  Eonney,  a  frame  chapel  was 
erected.  This  was  used  as  the  chnrch  huikling;  imtil  J887,  when,  during 
the  pastorate  of  Mr.  Sutherland,  a  building  of  brick  was  put  up  on  the  sonth 
side  of  Chicago  street  between  Matteson  and  Walker  streets,  which  is  the 
society's  present  church  building.  This  house  has  thus  been  in  use  by  the 
church  nineteen  years. 

Rev.  J.  R.  Bonney,  as  is  shown  by  the  foregoing  list  of  pastors,  has 
served  this  church  through  two  periods,  the  first  of  ten  years  and  the  second 
of  six,  or  sixteen  years  out  of  the  entire  thirty-eight  of  its  life.  No  minister 
has  ever  labored  so  long  in  the  western  part  of  the  county  as  has  Mr.  Bon- 
ney. He  was  ordained  in  the  county  in  1863,  in  connection  with  his  preach- 
ing in  a  srhoolhouse  in  Matteson  township.  At  the  present  writing,  JuJy, 
1906,  he  and  his  wife  are  residing  in  Bronson,  passing  their  later  years 
respected  and  beloved  by  the  village  community  and  by  many  in  all  parts  of 
the  county. 

In  T893  the  church  reported  102  residait  members.  From  an  examina- 
tion of  the  reports  of  several  years,  this  would  seem  to  be  its  lai^st  member- 
ship. For  1906  its  resident  membership  is  given  as  86.  The  membership 
and  activity  of  the  church  have  been  lessening  for  several  years,  arid  prob- 
ably at  no  time  since  the  erection  of  the  present  house  of  worship  in  1887 
has  the  church  been  so  low  in  numbers,  in  activity,  and  in  financial  ability. 

United  Brethren. 

A  church  of  the  United  Brethren  in  Christ  was  organize<l  by  R.  T. 
Martin  in  the  Block  schoolhouse  in  Bethel  township  in  1849.  with  a  char- 
ter membership  of  fortv-five.  The  first  church  house  was  dedicated  August 
2.  T869,  by  Bishop  J.  Weaver.  The  second  church  was  dedicated  in  1899  by 
Rev.  Wesley  Tilley.  The  building  cost  about  two  thousand  dollars.  The 
present  membership  is  43,  the  officials  being:  Frank  Lamjmian,  N.  Piatt, 
W.  Nagle.  A.  McEndarffer,  William  Ammemian,  trustees;  Frank  Lamp- 
man,  leader,  and  George  Lobdell,  steward,  and  O.  S.  Martin,  superintendent 
of  Sundav-school.  The  names  of  the  successive  pastors  are:  Revs.  R.  T. 
Martin,  j'.  J.  Johnston,  Redman,  A.  Zeever,  J.  Woldorf,  D.  Bender,  J.  W. 
Hill,  George  Crawford,  Kester,  J.  Brown,  J.  Tedrow,  Hight.  J.  W. 
Martin,  Swank,  Hopkins,  Kneep,  E.  E.  Rhodes. 

Evangelical  Lutheran  Churches. 

St.  Paul's  Lutheran  church  at  Coldwater  had  its  origin  in  services  held 
in  1858  by  Rev,  Speichard  of  Hillsdale.  Organization  followed  in  i860, 
the  charter  members  being:     L.  Erb.  F.  W.  Flandermeyer,  H.  H.  Flander- 


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206  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

meyer,  L.  Denner,  F.  Korff,  G.  Meyer,  Mr.  Nehring.  H,  Lingle.  G.  Wahl. 
The  property  and  church  Uiilding  were  purchased  in  1863.  Until  1877  the 
congregation  was  supplied  with  a  minister  froni  Hillsdale,  but  in  1878  be- 
came a  separate  charge,  under  Rev.  F.  Haueser.  'The  parsonage  was  built 
in  1880  and  the  school  in  1882.  Rev.  Haueser  was  succeeded  in  1884  hy 
Rev.  M.  Toewe:  he  by  Rev.  A,  Roetler  in  1891.  who  remained  until  T903, 
Tn  IQ04  Rev.  C.  J.  Homan  came  to  the  vacancy. 

ZioN  Church  of  the  Evangelical  Association, 

This  society  at  East  Gilead  was  organized  in  i860  by  Rev.  R.  Sneilly 
with  the  following  charter  members:  C.  S.  Brown  and  family,  Jacob  Doer 
and  family,  Josiah  Snyder  and  family.  C  S.  Brown  was  class  leader  until 
1865,  when  he  entered  the  ministry.  In  1866  the  present  church  edifice  was 
erected.     The  present  minister  is  Warren  Brown. 

The  Unitarians. 

Unity  church  at  Sherwooti  was  organized  in  1878,  and  the  society  was 
incorporated  Feb.  3,  1894.  The  first  church  building  was  erected  in  1881, 
and  the  present  structure  in  1892.  The  charter  members  of  this  church, 
which  is  now  in  a  flourishing  condition,  are  the  following  named :  John  F, 
Williams,  Sol  F.  Downs,  John  F.  McTntyre,  Menton  E.  Sawin,  Leverett  R. 
Daniels,  Ryan  Williams,  Edward  Carswell,  Spencer  Bennett,  Judson  H. 
Watkins,  William  T.  Smith,  Chas.  W.  Eisenmann,  Homer  J.  Craft,  G.  B, 
Williams,  Mrs.  M.  Williams,  Mrs.  A.  Williams,  John  Studley,  Dr.  Robt, 
Eraser,  Mrs.  Dr,  Robt.  Eraser,  Samuel  Cline,  Mrs.  Samuel  Cline,  Mrs,  A. 
L.  Williams,  Mrs.  Laura  E.  Turrell,  Mrs.  Isabell  Salisbury,  Catherine  Re- 
new, Mrs.  Rebecca  Bennett,  Nora  Moyer,  Mrs.  Ada  Eish,  Orpha  A.  Can- 
field,  Andrew  Renew,  Mrs.  Jennie  E.  Case,  Wm,  Wriggleworth,  Dwight 
Coddington,  R.  M,  Barton,  Isaac  C,  Maltby,  S.  S.  Kilbum,  A.  C,  Bell,  E, 
E.  Coddington,  Wallace  Kilbum,  Geo.  D.  Eish,  ?I.  H.  Cross,  Geo.  W.  Black- 
well,  H.  W.  Locke,  James  Gwin,  Esther  A.  Rimisey.  Emma  Hazen,  Louisa 
Hinkle,  Geo,  Sexton,  Thomas  Lockard,  Susan  Tinney,  Ann  Waugh,  Elver 
Gwinn,  Alta  Gwinn,  Mrs.  J.  Maltby,  Mrs.  Miller,  Jacob  Mound,  Mrs.  S. 
M.  Kilburn,  Vine  Bennett,  Melinda  Wrigg-leworth,  James  TJlletson,  R.  R. 
Jones,  J.  B,  Olney,  Mrs,  Elvira  Kilbum.  Mrs.  M.  E.  Bell,  Amasa  L.  Hills, 
Holton  Kilbum,  Clark  Canfield.  Ida  S.  I>aniels,  C.  Sanderson,  J.  F.  Tillet- 
son,  Lucretia  St.  Clair.  Ella  Frye.  Mrs.  J.  Worts,  Celinda  A.  Sawin,  Edwin 
Tinney,  Jasper  T.  Davis,  Sarah  Mastin,  Melvin  Gwinn, 

The  ministers  who  have  served  the  Unitarians  at  Sherwood  are:  Rev. 
M.  V.  Rorks,  Rev.  Ida  C.  Hultin,  Rev.  F.  M.  Aunks,  Rev.  Henry  Vassema, 
Rev.  Andrews,  Rev.  F.  W.  Hayes,  Rev.  E.  H.  Barrett,  Rev.  B.  A.  Hills. 

Mennonites  and  Dunkabds. 

In  Noble  township  is  an  organization  known  as  Mennonites,  the  exact 
name  of  which  is  the  "  Mennonite  Brethren  in  Christ."    This  denomination. 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  207 

to  ivhicli  tlie  Mennonites  of  Noble  belong,  was  formed  by  a  union  of  two  sim- 
ilar bodies  at  Jamestown,  Ohio,  Dec.  27,  1883.  Acceding  to  the  book  of 
discipline.  "  it  is  not  allowed  to  introduce  eitlier  musical  instnunents  or 
choirs  into  our  public  worship:  "  no  member  shall  be  permitted  to  have  his 
life  insured;  baptism  is  by  immersion  only:  they  recommend  and  practice 
feet  washing,  this  rite  being  observed  in  connection  with  communion,  which 
is  observed  every  three  months.  The  officers  of  the  Noble  church  at  this 
writing  (January,  1906)  are:  Rev.  Wihiam  H.  Moore,  miinister;  William 
Smith,  superintendent  of  the  Sunday-school;  John  Teachont,  class  leader: 
Menno  Good,  deacon. 

Another  similar  organization,  namely,  the  Dimkards,  hold  meetings  in 
the  Mennonite  church  in  Noble  everj'  two  weeks. 

Roman  Cathoi-ic  Chukches. 

St,  Charles  Roman  Catholic  church  at  Coldwater  was  organized  in 
1849.  A  small  frame  church  was  erected  in  1S56  on  the  present  church  site 
on  Harrison  street  near  Clay.  This  building  was  destroyed  by  incendiaries 
in  Jinie,  1859.  A  brick  building  was  ero:ted  in  1860,  and  this  was  remoxl- 
eled  a  few  years  ago.  The  brick  parsonage  was  built  in  1867,  and  the  St. 
Stanislaus  chapel  was  constructed  about  three  years  ago  at  the  time  of  the 
remodeling.  Rev.  Father  C.  Korst  was  pastor  of  this  parish  about  thirty 
years.     Father  Dennis  A.  Hayes  is  the  present  i>astor. 

Branson. 

Father  Korst,  of  Coldwater,  also  organized  St.  Mary's  Roman  Catholic 
church  at  Bronson  in  the  eighties.  Father  Korst  was  the  first  priest  officiat- 
ing at  Eronson.  After  him  came  Father  Crowe,  who  built  the  present  brick 
church  and  the  parsonage.  His  successors  ha\'e  been  Father  Roskie,  Father 
Meziskie,  Father  Heweit,  who  buiit  the  schoolhouse  in  1900  at  a  cost  of  four 
thousand  dollars.  Father  Heweit  left  in  April,  1906,  and  the  present  pastor 
is  Father  Maruszczyk. 

Protestant  Episcopal  Churches. 


couni 


Tlie  pioneer  of  the  Episcopal  form  of  religious'  worship  in  Branch 
Lty  was,  of  course,  Bishop  Chase,  who  conducted  the  first  Episcoi^al  serv- 
ice in  the  county  at  the  location  then  known  as  Adams  Mills,  in  west 
Bitmson  township,  in  1832.  The  history  of  his  settlement  in  Gilead,  de- 
scribed elsewhere,  should  be  read  in  connection  with  the  history  of  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  church  in  this  county. 

St.  Mark's  Protestant  Episcopal  church  at  Coldwater  had  its  origin 
at  a  meeting  February  9,  1848,  "at  the  White  schoolhouse"  in  Coldwater, 
where  legal  incorporarion  was  effected  and  the  following  persons  chosen  as 
wardens  and  vestrymen:  Joseph  H.  Moss,  Richard  Greenwood,  wardens; 
Luman  Howe,  E.  G.  Fuller,  L,  D,  Crippen,  James  Pierson  and  George  A. 
Coe,  vestrymen.     Services  with  the  Episcopal  liturgy   were  held   in   Cold- 


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208  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

water  before  this  time,  and  for  some  years  after  the  organization  the  place  of 
worship  was  the  schoolhoiises  and  the  conrt  house.  In  1859  a  site  was 
purchased  on  Hanchett  street  and  a  building  attempted,  but  failed  through 
a  defective  title.  Several  years  later  a  frame  building  was  constructed  at 
another  site  on  Hanchett  street,  the  church  being  consecrated  April  14,  1863. 
A  rectory  was  built  on  East  Chicago  street  at  the  present  church  site  in  1S70, 
During  the  following  decade  plans  were  laid  for  a  new  building  and  in  1880 
the  corner  stone  of  the  present  edifice  was  laid,  and  September  29,  1886,  the 
church  was  consecrated.  Extensive  improvements  were  made  in  1S95,  in- 
cluding a  new  organ. 

The  rectors  of  the  church  and  the  years  in  which  tliey  began  their 
service  are  as  follows:  George  Willard,  1848;  Gardner  M.  Skinner,  1855; 
Henry  Safiford,  i860;  Joseph  Wood,  1863;  J.  Wainright  Ray,  1866;  George 
.P.  Schetky.  D.  D.,  1869;  Henry  Safford.  1870;  Herbert  J.  Cook,  1875; 
Henry  Hughes,  1886:  Herbert  Sowerby,   1895. 

Union   City. 
Grace  Episcojxil    Church,   which  no  longer  maintains   regular   services, 
was  organized  at  the  home  of  Dr.  H.  E.  Ewers,  Dec.  23,  1864,  with  eighteen 
charter  members.     The  present   frame  church  building  00  Ellen  street  was 
erected  in  1865,  the  first  rector  being  Rev.  George  Verner, 

In  the  foregoing  we  have  given  some  account  of  all  the  church  organi- 
zations in  the  county  connected  with  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  and  with 
the  larger  and  longer  existing  denominations  of  Protestantism.  Other  re- 
ligious beliefs  than  those  held  by  the  bodies  described,  have  been  held  by 
people  in  the  county  all  through  its  history.  The  numbers  holding  these  be- 
liefs have  been  relatively  small.  The  names  of  these  beliefs,  or,  rather,  of 
the  people  holding  them,  are  these:  Disciples  or  Christians,  Seventh  Day 
Adventists,  Spiritualists,  the  Reorganized  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter 
Day  Saints,  Christian  Scientists,   the  Church  of  God,  and  Dowieites. 

The  Disciples  or  Christians  have  had  for  a  number  of  years  a  society 
in  Quincy,  and  they  have  also  there  a  small  church  building. 

The  Seventh  Day  Adventists  have  had  organizations  in  CoWwater, 
Quincy  and  Bronson. 

The  Reorganized  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter  Day  Saints  are  some- 
times called  Mormons,  but  they  are  entirely  disconnected  in  their  organiza- 
tion from  the  Utah  Mormon  Church.  They  have  an  organized  society  or 
"  branch  "  in  the  county,  and  a  church  building  which  is  located  on.  section 
19  of  Quincy  township  on  the  north  side  of  the  Chicago  road.  The  "  branch  " 
was  oi^anized  in  1864  in  the  home  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Bradford  Corliss,  who 
were  then  residing  in  southwest  Quincy.  The  building  was  not  erected  until 
About  1895.  Mr.  Corliss,  who  now  resides  in  Coldwater,  has  been  for  twen- 
ty-five years  president  of  the  branch,  which  is  known  as  "  the  Coldwater 
Branch  of  the  Northern  Indiana  and   Southem  Michigan   District."     Rev. 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  209 

S.  W.  L.  Scott,  residing  in  Coldwater,  is  an  active  missionary  of  this  re- 
ligious denomination. 

From  an  early  day  in  tlie  life  of  the  county  to  the  present  time  there 
have  always  been  some  Spiritualists  among  its  people,  the  mimbers  varying 
with  the  decades.  At  times  they  have  been  numerous  enough  to  have  one  or 
more  organizations.  At  one  time  in  Coldwater  tiiey  were  strong  enough  to 
erect  a  fine,  substantial  brick  structure  for  their  meetings.  This  house  is 
stilt  standing  on  the  southeast  comer  of  Pearl  and  Division  streets,  though 
for  the  past  forty  years  it  has  been  owned  and  occupied  as  a  private  res.i- 
dence. 

In  January,  igo6,  the  First  Church  of  Christ,  Scientist,  .of  Coldwater, 
was  organized.  For  some  years  before,  however,  the  Chrisitan  Scientists 
had  held  their  regular  meetings  in  the  city. 

The  inclination  on  the  part  of  the  churches  of  the  county  to  co-operate 
with  each  other  in  various  ways  for  the  religious  and  moral  welfare  of  the 
peo])le  has  grown  steadily  through  all  the  years  ot  its  history.  This  has 
jjeen  exemplified  in  inter-denominational  activity  in  Sunday  schools,  in  Chris- 
tian Endeavor  Unions,  in  Young  Men's  Christian  Associations,  and  in  union 
meetings  held  on  special  days,  such  as  Thanksgiving  Day  and  at  other  times. 

March  2,  1887,  The  Branch  County  Sunday  School  Association  was 
arganized  in  Coldwater,  or,  more  correctly,  revived,  for  there  had  been  such 
an  organization  years  before,  though  it  had  ceased  its  activity  for  about  ten 
years.  The  first  president  was  Rev.  J.  P.  Philips,  pastor  of  the  Baptist 
church  of  Coldwater.  Rev.  Henry  P.  Collins  was  elected  secretary  at  the 
time,  and  has  served  as  such  for  nineteen  years. 

For  several  years  the  Branch  County  Christian  Endeavor  Union  held 
its  conventions  annually,  but  none  has  been  held  since  1903. 

The  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union  of  Branch  County  has  been 
in  existence  for  years,  and  is  carrying  on  its  work  as  actively  as  ever.  In 
1905.  in  connection  with  the  Coldwater  Union,  it  invited  the  State  Associa- 
tion" to  hold  its  annual  convention  at  the  county  seat  of  the  county.  The 
invitation  was  accepted,  and  June  5  and  6,  1906,  the  Thirty-second  Annual 
Convention  of  the  Michigan  Woman's  Christian  Union  was  held  in  Cold- 
water. 


C.ooiik' 


HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

POLITICAL  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY. 

Previous  to  the  year  1841,  records  of  the  doings  of  the  political  parties 
in  Branch  county  have  not  been  preserved,  but  in  August  of  that  year  con- 
ventions were  held  by  both  the  Democratic  and  Whig  parties.  August  20  the 
Democratic  convention  was  held  at  the  court  hmise  in  Coldwater,  and  the 
following  delegates  were  elected  to  the  state  convention,  to  be  held  in 
Marshall,  September  i  :  Chas.  G.  Hammond,  John  T.  Haynes  and  Enos  G. 
Berry.  Wales  Adams.  Albert  Chandler  and  Hiram  Shoudler  were  elected 
delegates  to  the  senatorial  convention  to  be  held  at  Albion  Avigiist  29.  Ac- 
cording to  a  call  printed  in  the  Coldwater  Sentinel  of  August  20,  a  Whig 
convention  was  held  August  21,  for  the  purpose  of  electing  delegates  to  a 
like  convention,  but  the  subsequent  issues  of  the  paper  contain  no  account 
of  such  a  convention  being  held.  The  Democratic  convention  nominatefl 
John  G.  Barry  for  governor  and  the  Whigs  nominated  Philo  C.  Fuller. 
The  Democratic  nomiinees  for  state  senators  were  Edward  A.  Warner,  of 
Branch,  and  Henry  Hewitt,  of  Calhoun.  Enos  G.  Berry  was  nominated 
for  representative.  At  the  election  the  following  November  the  county  gave 
Barry  a  majority  of  355. 

At  the  general  election  held  in  November,  1844,  the  county  was  carried 
by  the  Democrats  by  about  240  majority,  electing  Wales  Adams,  representa- 
tive: Anselum  Arnold,  sheriff;  John  T.  Haynes,  treasurer;  Corydon  P. 
Benton,  clerk,  and  Jared  Pond,  register. 

In  the  fall  of  1845  Branch  county  gave  the  Democrats  a  majority  of 
347  for  Alpheus  Felch,  candidate  for  governor,  but  for  the  first  time  in  the 
history  of  the  county  the  Whigs  elected  a  portion  of  their  ticket.  George  A. 
Coe.  of  Coldwater,  Whig  nominee  for  state  senator,  defeated  Ephraim  B. 
Danforth  by  78  votes,  and  William  B.  Sprague,  a  Whig,  was  elected  repre- 
sentative by  a  majority  of  32  votes.  At  this  election  James  G.  Bimey,  after- 
wards famous  as  an  Abolitionist,  received  81  vo^es  for  governor  on  the 
Abolition  ticket. 

At  the  November  election  in  1S46  the  Democrats  elected  their  entire 
ticket  bv  majorities  ranging  from  50  to  300_.  and  in  the  fall  of  1847  *e 
Democratic  ticket  from  governor  down  received  majorities  ranging  from 
301  to  378,  with  the  exception  of  Enos  G.  Berr}',  who  was  defeated  by  Geo. 
A.  Coe  for  the  state  senate  by  a  majority  of  18  votes. 

Again  in  the  general  election  of  November,  1848,  the  Democrats  were 
generally  victorious,  giving  420  majority  for  Cass  and  Butler,  nominees 
for  president  and  vice  president.     But  the  Whigs  made  still  further  inroads 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  211 

upon  the  local  Demoa-atic  ticket  by  electing  Geo.  A.  Coe  representative  by 
a  majority  of  17,  James  Pierson  sheriff  by  12  majority  and  Hiram  Rathbum 
Alden  treasurer  by  13  majority. 

In  November,  1849,  the  Democrats  gave  John  S.  Barry,  their  nominee 
for  governor,  a  majority  of  379,  but  Roland  Root,  a  Whig,  was  elected  repre- 
sentati\'e  by  a  majority  of  53  over  Henry  C.  Gilbert. 

tn  November,  1S50,  the  whole  Democratic  ticket  was  elected,  with  the 
excqrtion  of  one  representative,  by  majorities  ranging  fronr  8  to  600.  Jared 
Pond  was  defeated  by  S.  L.  Lawrence,  a  Whig.  In  this  election  the  Free 
Soilers  united  with  the  Whigs  upon  several  candidates. 

The  election  held  in  the  fall  of  185 1  appears  to  have  been  very  tame,  as 
only  a  governor  and  lieutenant  governor  were  to  be  elected.  The  result 
was  that  Branch  gave  Robert  McClelland,  the  Democratic  candidate,  a  major- 
ity of  231.     At  this  election  only  1,125  votes  were  cast. 

The  campaign  of  1852  was  an  exciting  one.  Party  feelings  ran  high 
and  mass  meetings  were  held  by  both  the  Democrats  and  Whigs.  The  Demo- 
crats gathered  in  front  of  the  old  court  house  on  Monday,  October  11,  and 
listened  to  addresses  by  Gen.  Lewis  Cass,  Senator  Felch  and  Gov.  McClelland, 
and  it  was  claimed  that  fully  four  thousand  were  in  attendance.  The  Whigs, 
being  in  the  minority,  did  not  gather  in  crowds  as  great  as  the  Democrats, 
but  they  were  enthusiastic  for  their  ticket,  which  was  headed  by  Gen.  Win- 
field  Scott  for  president,  while  the  Democrats  were  hurrahing  for  Franklin 
Pierce,  who  received  a  majority  of  303  votes  in  the  county.  The  Democrats 
elected  their  entire  county  ticket  by  majorities  of  250  to  350, 

During  the  summer  of  1854  the  Republican  party  was  organized  at 
Jackson,  Michigan,  and  at  the  fall  election  it  administered  to  the  Democratic 
party  the  first  defeat  ever  known  by  that  organization  in  Branch  county. 
Kinsley  S,  Bingham,  Republican  candidate  for  governor,  received  a  majority 
of  734  in  the  county,  and  Daniel  Wilson,  Republican,  defeated  Ebeaiezer 
Butterworth,  Democrat,  for  the  office  of  sheriff,  by  a  majority  of  5S1.  For 
county  clerk  Eben  O.  Ijeach  was  elected  over  Albert  Chandler  and  Curtis 
Young  was  elected  register  of  deeds  over  Joseph  C.  Leonard.  For  county 
treasurer  Hiran  Shoudler  defeated  Wales  Adams,  and  John  W.  Turner  de- 
feated John  G.  Parkhurst  for  the  ofifice  of  prosecuting  attorney. 

This  election  was  followed  by  an  almost  unbroken  series  of  Republican 
majorities  until  November,  1878,  when  the  Greenback  party,  which  had  lately 
beaime  quite  a  power,  united  with  the  Democrats  on  most  of  their  candi- 
dates and  went  into  the  campaign  of  1878  under  tlie  name  of  Nationals.  Ttie 
Republican  ticket  was  again  successful  with  the  following  exceptions:  Will- 
iam H.  Donaldson,  National,  defeated  Zelotes  G.  Osborn,  Republican,  and 
Arthur  Crippen,  Democrat,  by  a  plurality  of  153;  for  representative,  C.  J. 
Thorpe,  National,  was  elected  over  James  R.  Wilson,  Republican,  and  John 
Taggart.  Democrat,  by  a  plurality  of  224.  The  balance  of  the  Republican 
county  ticket  was  elected  by  majorities  ranging  from  68  to  606.  At  this 
election  John  B.  Shipman,  who  was  on  botli  Democratic  and  National  tidcets, 
was  elected  circuit  judge  over  David  B.  Tliompson,  Republican,  and  Riley, 


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212  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

Democrat,  by  a  plurality  of  875.  Branch  county  gave  him  a  majority  of 
only  16  votes,  the  remainder  coming-  from  St.  Joseph,  county.  Jonas  H.  Mc- 
Gowan,  of  Coldwater,  was  elected  to  congress  from  this  district.  Branch 
county  giving  him  a  miajority  of  383  over  Upton,  Democrat,  and  Dawson, 
National. 

In  November,  1880,  the  Republicans  were  entirely  successful,  electing 
everything  by  majorities  ranging  from  929  to  1722.  Charles  Upson  was 
elected  to  congress.  Branch  giving  him  a  majority  of  1188. 

In  November,  1882,  the  Greenback  party  was  popular  throughout  the 
state,  electing  Begole  by  about  800  majority,  but  Branch  stood  almost  solidly 
for  the  Republican  ticket,  electing  everything  excepting  sheriff  and  repre- 
sentative in  the  second  district.  Oliver  C.  Campbell,  Greenback,  was  elected 
sheriff  over  Geo.  W.  Van  Aken,  Republican,  by  46  votes,  and  Emanuel  Hime- 
baugh,  a  Greenback,  was  elected  representative  over  Richard  Coward,  Re- 
publican, by  17  votes.  With  these  two  exceptions  the  Republican  majorities 
ranged  from  143  to  1223. 

The  campaign  of  1884  was  closely  contested,  but  the  Republicans  were 
again  successful  in  the  main,  losing  only  sheriff  and  prosecuting  attorney. 
Campbell  was  re-elected  sheriff  by  a  majority  of  495,  and  John  R.  Champion, 
Greenback,  defeated  Marc  A.  Merrifield,  Republican,  for  prosecuting  attor- 
ney by  a  majority  of  27  votes.  In  this  campaign  the  votes  on  the  presiden- 
tial ticket  were  as  follows:  James  G.  Blaine,  Republican,  3671;  Grover 
Cleveland,  Democrat,  1315;  Benjamin  F,  Butler,  Greenback,  1644;  John  St. 
John,  Prohibition,  419. 

The  official  canvass  of  the  votes  cast  November  2,  1886,  shows  a  clean 
sweep  for  the  Republicans.  Cyrus  G.  Luce  for  governor  headed  the  Rqjurj- 
lican  ticket  and  received  in  Branch  coimty  a  plurality  of  758  votes  over  Geo. 
L.  Yaple,  Democrat,  and  Samuel  Dickie,  Prohibitionist. 

In  September,  1888,  President  Cleveland  appointed  Gen.  John  G.  Park- 
hurst  minister  to  Belgium. 

In  November  the  county  gave  a  solid  Republican  majority,  honoring 
Gov.  Luce  by  a  plurality  of  1284  over  Wellington  Burt,  Democrat.  Alfred 
Milnes,  of  Coldwater,  was  elected  to  the  .state  senate  by  a  plurality  of  1380 
over  I^ne,  Democrat. 

The  Democrats  were  successful  in  the  state  in  the  fall  of  1890,  electing 
E.  B.  Winans  governor,  but  Branch  county  stood  firmly  by  its  long-time  Re- 
publican majority,  giving  J.  M.  Turner,  Republican,  a  plurality  of  962  over 
Winans.  and  elected  their  entire  county  ticket  with  the  exception  of  prosecut- 
ing attorney,  in  which  WilHam  H.  Compton,  Republican,  was  defeated  by 
Elmer  E.  Palmer.  Democrat,  who  won  by  a  majority  of  672.  For  state 
senator  Oliver  C.  Campbell,  Democrat,  was  elected  by  a  plurality  of '73.  The 
opposing  candidate  was  Alfred  Milnes,  Republican,  who  received  2716,  and 
Edward  E.  Bostwick,  PrcAibitionist.  The  Republican  majorities  on  the 
balance  of  the  ticket  varied  from  84  to  1401. 

The  presidential  election  of  1892  found  Branch  solid  for  the  Republican 
ticket,   giving  every  candidate  a  plurality,   which  on  the  presidential  ticket 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY    '  213 

was  1 124.  The  election  of  two  years  later,  in  1894,  was  a  repetition  of 
1892,  the  Republicans  electing-  everything'  by  increased  pluralities. 

In  the  spring'  of  iSg$  Alfred  Mihies  was  elected  to  the  national  house 
of  representatives  to  succeed  J.  C.  Burrows,  who  went  to  the  senate.  In 
this  contest  Mr.  Milnes  defeated  Calvin  J.  TlioqDe.  who  was  the  candidate 
of  the  Democratic,  Silver  and  Prohibition  parties,  his  majority  being  about 
1400. 

The  famous  silver  campaign  of  1896  proved  a  disaster  for  the  Repubh- 
cans.  After  many  years  of  almost  unbroken  control  of  tlie  political  affairs 
of  the  county,  they  were  totally  roiitexl  by  Bryan  and  his  followers.  The 
entire  silver  ticket  was  elected  by  pluralities  of  from  161  to  368.  the  latter 
being  A.  M.  Todd's  plurality  over  Alfred  Mihies  for  congressman.  Bryan 
carried  the  county  by  a  plurality  of  377.  Two  years  later  the  Republicans 
reg:ained  some  of  their  lost  prestige  by  electing  about  half  of  their  county 
ticket,  and  giving  a  majority  of  105  for  their  candidate  for  governoi-,  Hazen 
S.  Pingree. 

Jn  1900  the  silver  party,  again  headed  by  William  Jennings  Bryan  for 
president,  were  overwhelmingly  defeated  by  the  Republicans,  who  carried  the 
county  for  every  candidate  on  their  ticket.  McKinley  polled  880  more  votes 
than  Bryan  and  the  Republican  candidates  on  the  same  ticket  averaged  about 
the  same  number. 

In  1902  the  party  opposed  to  the  Republicans  again  assumed  its  old 
name  and  the  campaign  vi'as  once  more  between  the  Republicans  and  the 
Democrats,  in  which  the  latter  were  more  overwhelmingly  defeated  than 
was  the  silver  party  in  1900.  The  county  ticket  electefl  was  entirely  Repub- 
ilcan  by  a  majority  of  over  1000. 

TT^ie  election  on  November  8,  1904.  was  the  most  decisive  defeat  the 
Democrats  ever  suffered  in  Blanch  county.  The  Republican  ticket,  headed  by 
Roosevelt  for  president,  carried  the  county  by  largely  increased  major- 
ities. Roosevelt  received  2837  more  votes  than  did  Parker,  the  Dem- 
ocratic candidate,  and  the  Republican  county  ticket  was  elected  by  majori- 
ties varying  from  1799  to  2159. 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 
COURTS  AND  LAWYERS. 

Until  Michig:an  became  a  state  the  judicial  circuit  embracing  Branch 
county  covered  the  entire  Michigan  Territory,  that  is,  there  was  only  one 
judicial  circuit,  and  the  circuit  judge  held  sessions  in  all  the  organized  coun- 
ties. "  At  a  session  of  the  Circuit  Court  of  the  Territory  of  Michigan, 
holder)  in  and  for  the  county  of  Branch,"  is  the  record  for  the  first  circuit 
court  held  in  this  county  after  it  was  separately  organized  from  St.  Joseph 
county. 

In  1S36  Michigan  was  divided  into  judicial  circuits  each  presided  o\'er 
by  a  circuit  judge.  By  the  act  approved  July  26,  1836,  the  third  judi- 
cial circuit  was  organized.  The  original  counties  embraced  in  this  circuit 
were  Branch,  St.  Joseph,  Cass,  Berrien,  Kalamazoo,  Allegan,  Calhoun,  Kent, 
and  all  the  country  attached  to  any  one  of  these  for  judicial  purposes. 

Branch  county  continued  a  part  of  the  third  circuit  until  1851.  An  act 
approved  April  8th,  of  that  year,  created  the  second  circuit  of  Branch,  St. 
Joseph,  Cass  and  Berrien  counties. 

On  March  6,  1869,  the  second  circuit  was  divided,  Berrien  and  Cass 
being  constituted  one  circuit  and  retaining  the  nan^e  of  second  circuit,  while 
Branch  and  St.  Joseph  were  organized  as  the  fifteenth  judicial  circuit,  and  as 
sucli  it  has  remained  to  the  present  time.  The  late  Judge  Charles  Upson  was 
the  first  judge  of  this  circuit,  serving  from  1870  to  1876. 

The  first  constitution  of  Michigan  provided  for  a  county  court,  inter- 
mediate between  the  justice  courts  and  the  circuit  court.  The  first  session 
of  the  Branch  county  court  was  held  in  Coklwater.  March  i.  1847,  Jacob 
Shook  being  present  as  setond  judge,  with  C.  P.  Benton,  clerk.  In  conse- 
quence of  the  abolition  of  this  branch  of  judiciary  by  the  second  constitution, 
the  county  court  adjourned  sine  die  December  31,  1851,  Justin  Lawyer  being 
the  last  judge. 

For  several  years  after  the  organization  of  a  county  government  the 
legal  business  of  the  county  was  transacted  by  lawyers  whose  homes  were  in 
other  counties  of  the  state.  The  profession  of  law  during  the  early  days  was 
an  itinerant  one.  The  court  moved  about  from  county  seat  to  county  seat 
over  an  immense  area  comprising  the  judicial  cinruit,  an<l  with  the  coiirt  trav 
eled  the  attorneys.  They  traveled  by  stage  coach  or  horsebad^  according  to 
choice  or  convenience,  and  the  arrival  of  the  court  and  its  attorneys  was  an 
event  to  be  looked  forsvard  to  by  the  villagers  of  the  county  seat. 

Thus,  in  October,  1833,  no  httle  stir  and  excitement  was  caused  in  the 
little  village  of  Branch  when  the  first  session  of  the  circuit  court  was  begun. 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  215 

The  court,  which  opened  on  the  21st  day  of  the  niDiith,  was  presided  over 
by  William  A.  Fletcher,  who  was  president  judge  of  the  jiuiicial  circuit  of  the 
territory  of  Michigan.  Associate  judges  were  Silas  A.  Holbrook,  for  many 
years  a  well  known  business  man  of  Coklwater,  and  William  A.  Kent. 

In  the  minutes  of  this  session  is  tlilis  sentence,  "  Ordered  that  Nea!  Mc- 
Gaffey  be  prosecuting  attorney  die  present  term."  Mr.  McGaffey  may  be 
considered  one  of  the  first,  if  not  tlie  first,  lawyer  who  practiced  before  a 
court  of  record  in  Branch  county.  But  he  was  not  a  resident  of  this  county. 
His  home  was  at  White  Pigeon,  where  he  lived  and  died.  St.  Joseph  county, 
as  already  mentioned,  was  for  several  years  the  civil  and  judicial  center  for 
a  large  region  which  has  since  been  divided  into  separate  counties,  including 
Branch  county.  Therefore  it  was  natural  that  the  first  lawyers  who  located 
in  this  part  of  the  state  would  settle  in  St.  Joseph  county  where  their  profes- 
sional interests  were  centered. 

But  the  oldest  attorney  of  this  part  of  the  state,  was  CoKimbia  Lancaster, 
whose  name  is  mentioned  among  die  attorneys  of  the  April  term  of  1835  as 
having  business  in  the  Branch  county  session  of  the  circuit  court.  Colum- 
bia Lancaster  was  born  in  Connecticut  in  1803,  came  to  White  Pigeon  in 
1830,  and  on  the  location  of  the  county  seat  at  Centen'ille  became  the  first 
resident  of  that  place.  He  is  said  to  have  taught  the  second  school  in  Branch 
county,  and  in  addition  to  being  a  lawyer  and  scliool  teacher  was  a  mighty 
hunter.     He  later  moved  to  Washington  Territory. 

The  aftomeys  mentioned  alongside  the  name  of  C.  Lancaster  were 
Marcus  Lane  and  George  W.  Jewett  (or  Jewit,  as  it  was  spelled  in  the 
records).  Marcus  Lane  came  from  his  home  at  Yi>silanti  to  practice  in 
Branch  county.  On  coming  to  Michigan  he  had  located  for  practice  at  Ann 
Arbor,  in  1826.  George  W.  Jewett  lived  at  Ann  Arbor,  but  afterward  moved 
to  Niies,  where  he  dietl. 

At  the  October  term  -ji  circuit  court  in  1835  Henry  I.  Backus  sought 
a  license  to  practice  law  in  the  territory  of  Michigan.  Thereupon  the  judge 
appointed  the  attorneys  Jewett,  Lancaster  and  Lane  a  committee  to  ex- 
amine the  qualifications  of  Mr.  Backus,  who  had  previously  practiced  in  the 
state  of  Connecticut,  and  on  examination  the  committee  found  the  applicant 
duly  qualified,  whereupon  he  was  admitted  to  practice.  Mr.  Backus  was  the 
first  attorney  admitted  to  practice  in  Branch  county.  Although  admitted 
here,  there  is  no  proof  that  he  was  ai  resident  lawyer  in  the  county. 

In  1837  there  came  to  Coldwater  EzlxMi  G.  Fuller  who,  according  to  all 
accepted  reports  and  proofs,  was  die  first  resident  lawyer  of  Branch  county, 
although  not  the  first  attorney  to  represent  clients  m  court  here.  Dymg 
January  14,  1892.  at  Marysville,  California,  where  he  had  resided  smce  1878, 
Judge  E.  G.  Fuller  was  at  the  time  of  his  death  nearly  eighty-two  years  old, 
forty  years  of  which  had  been  passed  as  a  member  of  the  bar  of  Branch 
county.  He  was  appointed  prosecuting  attorney  soon  after  his  admission 
to  practice,  and  later  held  the  office  of  judge  o.f  probate.  His  practice  fell  of? 
in  later  years,  nor  did  he  make  much  effort  to  keep  up  with  the  profession. 


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216  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

but  gave  imich  af  his  time  to  his  farm  and  the  abstract  business,  until  he 
moved  to  CaJifornia. 

In  the  first  number'  of  the  Coldzvater  Sentinel,  dated  April,  1841,  are  the 
professional  cards  of  E.  A.  Warner,  E.  G.  Fuller  and  George  A.  Coe.  These 
constituted  the  Branch  county  bar  at  that  date.  The  first  named  had  located 
in  Coldwater  about  1838.     He  died  about  1845,  while  still  young.     George 

A.  Coe  had  begun  his  professional  career  in  Coldwater,  and  during  the  thirty 
years  before  his  death  m  1869  he  attained  unusuai  prominence.  Besides  hold- 
ing various  local  offices  he  was  a  member  of  both  branches  of  the  legislature, 
and  in  1854  and  1856  was  lieutenant  governor  of  the  state. 

The  calendar  of  the  Branch  county  court  in  1847  contains  the  follow- 
ing attorneys  who  appeared  in  cases  tried  in  that  year:  H,  C.  Gilbert,  W. 
Brown,  Louis  T.  N.  Wilson,  E.  G.  Fuller,  George  A.  Coe,  Justin  Lawyer, 
Justus  Goodwin,  E.  G.  Parsons,  D.  Darwin  Hughes,  A.  Piatt,  E.  J.  Hard, 
John  Root,  C.  B.  Dresser,  A.  French  and  J.  W.  Gilbert. 

Of  these,  L.  T,  N.  Wilson  studied  his  law  in  the  office  of  Mr.  Coe  at 
Coldwater.  He  was  identified  with  Coldwater  until  his  death,  April  26, 
1887. 

The  name  of  Justin  Lawyer,  above  mentioned  with  the  attorneys  Oif 
1847,  will  long  be  honored  in  Coldwater  not  so  much  for  his  connection  with 
the  law  as  for  his  relation  with  business  and  public  affairs.  He  did  not  prac- 
tice long,  but  turned  his  attention  to  banking  and  other  interests.  "  The 
public  had  confidence  in  his  ability  to  do  things  thoroughly  and  well,"  is 
the  most  impressive  tribute  to  his  Hfe  and  character.  He  was  connected  with 
sevei"al  public  enterprises,  among  them  the  city  water  works,  of  which  he 
was  superintendent  at  the  time  of  his  death,  March  13,  1894. 

Passing  over  almost  a  generation  of  time,  to  the  year  1875,  we  find 
many  changes  in  the  personnel  of  the  county  bar.  The  roll  of  Branch  county 
attorneys  in  1875,  as  given  in  a  court  calendar  of  that  year,  is  as  follows: 
(Tlie  names  are  mentioned  in  order  of  seniority)  Ezbon  G.  Fuller.  Charles 
tlpson,  David  B.  Dennis,  Caleb  D.  Randall,  David  Thompson,  John  W. 
Turner,  John  R.  Champion,  W.  J.  Bowen,  Franklin  E.  Morgan,  J.  H.  Mc- 
Gowan,  J,  B.  Shipman,  Nosh  P.  Loveridge,  Justin  Lawyer,  J.  G.  Parkhurst. 
F.  L  Skeels,  C.  N.  Legg,  C.  E.  Thornton,  H.  H.  Barlow,  C.  D.  Wright,  S. 

B,  Kitchel,  all  of  Coldwater.  Ezra  Berry  was  from  Quincy.  while  Union 
City  was  represented  by  Jerome  Bowen,  M.  A.  Merrifield  and  George  Styles. 

Judge  Charles  Upson  (see  sketch),  who  died  September  5,  1885,  at  the 
age  of  sixty-four,  was  once  referred  to  in  the  early  sixties  as  "  the  leading 
attorne>-  of  southwestern  Michigan."  He  was  well  versed  in  the  common 
and  statute  law,  was  energetic  in  all  that  he  did,  and  had  the  respect  of  the 
entire  bar  of  Branch  county. 

Caleb  D.  Randall,  who  died  September  i,  1903,  was  for  many  years 
influential  in  business  and  the  law.  He  was  bom  in  Cayuga  county,  New- 
York,  in  1831,  a  son  of  Dr.  Alvah  Randall,  the  pioneer  physician  of  Bronson, 
who  has  been  mentioned  elsewhere.  Studying  law,  he  began  practice  about 
1855,  but  did  very  little  active  legal  work  after  the  war.     He  was  successful 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  217 

as  a  pension  claim  agent,  and  in  1870  was  elected  to  the  state  senate.  He 
took  part  in  the  organization  of  the  Southern  Michi^n  National  Bank,  and 
for  some  years  before  as  we!!  as  subsequent  to  that  time  lie  gave  little  atten- 
tion to  legal  practice.  Altlrough  noted  for  his  business  conservatism.  Ire 
suffered  severe  reverses  and  had  to  relinquish  most  of  his  interests.  His 
work  in  education  and  the  charities,  and  his  zeal  in  all  matters  affecting  the 
public  interest  are  attested  in  various  places  in  this  history. 

David  Thompson  was  another  pioneer  lawyer  who  prepareti  for  his 
profession  in  Coldwater.  He  was  associated  with  Charles  Upson  during  the 
early  sixties,  and  in  1864  was  elected  judge  of  probate,  and  later  served  as 
circuit  judge  to  fill  a  vacancy.  Judge  Thompson  has  been  characterized  as 
a  most  kindly  man,  of  easy  approach,  with  little  shrewdness  and  no  closeness 
in  financial  matters.  His  easy  going  methods  prevented  him'  from  accunii- 
ulating"  money,  but  he  was  always  a  respectetl  iigiire  in  the  commimity.  He 
became  a  clerk  under  the  government  at  Washington,  and  died  at  Coldwater, 
February  19,  1896. 

AH  the  old  settlers  as  well  as  the  members  of  the  bar  knew  and  liked 
John  W.  Turner,  whose  most  prominent  characteristics  were  a  jovial,  genial 
nature,  a  natural  eloquence,  and  a  poetic  temperament  that  sometimes  man- 
ifested itself  in  verse.  Quick  at  repartee  and  relying  more  on  the  inspiration 
of  the  occasion  than  attention  to  details,  he  was  noted,  during  his  early 
career,  as  a  strong  advocate  before  a  jury.  He  died  at  the  age  of  seventy 
years,  August  ti.  1888. 

Willard  J.  Bowen,  who  is  also  deceased,  was  a  graduate  in  law  from  the 
University  of  Michigan,  a  member  of  the  same  class  with  Franklin  E.  Mor- 
gan. His  praictice  was  limited,  for  he  soon  directed  his  attention  to  other 
matters,  for  awhile  doing  a  business  in  prosecuting  war  claims,  and  later 
became  a  member  of  the  hanking  firm  of  Rose,  Bowen  &  Rose.  Eventually 
he  went  to  Texas,  where  he  had  a  career  in  business  and  politics,  and  where 
he  died. 

Jerome  Bowen,  who,  as  elsewhere  related,  was  at  one  time  connected 
with  the  Coldwater  Republican,  was  practicing  law  during  the  seventies  in 
Union  City,  and  from  there  went  to  Manistee. 

J.  H.McGowan,  who  died  in  Washington,  where  he  lived  after  serving 
as  a  representative  from  his  Michigan  district,  was  a  self-made,  college-bred 
lawyer.  A  poor,  hard-working  college  boy,  he  yet  had  the  popular  qualities 
and  the  ability  to  mingle  with  his  fellows  to  such  a  degree  that  be  was  re- 
ceived into  the  societies  of  wealth  of  the  university.  In  jiractice  he  was  noted 
for  his  abihty  in  cross  examination,  and  could  direct  a  (ire  of  questions  with 
such  rapidity  as  has  seldom  been  equaled.  He  was  successful  in  his  profes- 
sion, and  stood  high  in  the  communitj'  because  of  his  clean,  pure  record. 

The  death  of  Noah  P.  Loveridge  on  June  26,  1900,  took  away  another 
of  the  lawyers  who  had  come  to  Coldwater  during  the  sixties.  He  had  a  suc- 
cessful practice  from  the  start,  and  was  associated  for  a  number  of  years 
with  Judge  J.  B.  Shipman.  He  stoofi  high  in  public  affairs,  and,  like  his 
associate,  held  the  office  of  judge  of  the  fifteenth  judicial  circuit. 


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218  HISTORY  O'F  BRANCH  COUNTY 

One  by  one  the  county  bar  of  1875  'i^s  been  diminished  by  death.  Ezra 
Berry,  the  Qiiincy  attorney  at  that  time,  and  since  deceased,  was  a  member 
of  the  well  known  pioneer  family  of  that  village.  He  had  been  admitted  to 
the  bar  in  1846,  and  a  large  part  of  his  business  career  was  spent  in  other 
affairs, 

C.  D,  Wright  was  a  CoMwater  boy.  who  was  admitted  to  the  bar  there, 
and  later  went  west  to  Los  Angeles,  where  he  acquired  a  competence  mainly 
by  successful  investment,  and  died  in  tliat  city.  F.  L.  Skeels,  who  \^■as  an 
active  member  of  the  profession  for  some  years,  and  is  now  deceased,  was  a 
Yale  graduate,  .which  was  an  uncommon  distinction  for  the  lawyer  of  that 
time.     He  served  four  years  as  prosecuting  attorney  of  the  county. 

Only  recently,  and  while  this  work  has  been  in  process  of  compilation, 
two  others  whose  names  appear  in  th'e  above  roll  have  passed  away,  namely, 
S.  B.  Kitchel  and  Gen.  J.  G.  Parkhurst,  whose  careers  are  sketched  elsewhere. 

Two  other  early  lawyers  might  be  mentioned.  One  was  M.  S.  Bowen, 
who  came  during  the  sixties,  and  remained  only  a  few  years.  His  best  re- 
membered characteristic  was  his  fondness  for  the  legal  quibble,  and  he  oiften 
clouded  the  judgment  of  both  judge  and  jury  with  a  shower  of  technicali- 
ties and  whimsical  objections.  The  other  character  was  E.  S.  Jennings,  the 
"  tramp  lawyer,"  who  wj(s  possessed  of  a  facile  and  persuasive  eloquence.  It 
is  said  that  this  enabled  him  fO'  borrow  a  large  sum  of  money  from  a  dozen 
nr  more  persons  about  the  same  time.  He  then  went  to  Nebraska,  where  he 
invested  in  land,  became  prosperous,  and,  to  his  credit  let  it  be  said,  met  all 
his  obligations  in  full. 

In  the  roll  of  1875  ™3y  be  found  the  oldest  members  of  the  present  bar. 
Since  the  death  of  Gen.  Parkhurst,  John  R.  Champion  is  the  oldest  lawyer 
in  the  county.  He  has  been  here  since  before  the  war.  At  one  time  he  was 
considered  one  of  the  able  criminal  lawyers  of  the  county,  but  in  later  years 
had  a  general  practice. 

Time  has  also  dealt  kindly  with  Franklin  E.  Morgan,  who  was  one  of 
the  early  graduates  from  the  University  of  Michigan  law  department,  and 
who  came  here  in  1863.  Although  a  member  of  die  bar  for  forty  years,  until 
his  retirement  in  January,  J904,  he  was  never  in  active  court  practice.  He 
had  an  office  business,  largely  in  real  estate  and  loans,  and  represented  outside 
capital  and  some  estates  in  Coldwater.  When  local  capital  became  sufficient 
to  meet  all  the  demands,  his  business  in  that  direction,  which  had  been  quite 
remunerative,  declined,  and  thereafter  until  his  retirement  he  carried  on  an 
office  law  practice. 

Judge  John  B.  Shipman,  whose  career  is  sketched  on  another  page,  is 
still  a  leader  of  the  Branch  county  bar,  with  over  forty  years  of  active  prac- 
tice behind  him,  part  of  which  time  he  was  circuit  judge. 

Others  whose  names  are  mentioned  elsewhere  are  the  well  known  at- 
torneys Charles  N.  Legg,  H.  H.  Barlow,  both  of  Coldwater,  and  M.  A,  Mer- 
rifieki  and  George  Styles  of  Union  City. 

A  study  of  the  careers  of  Branch  county's  legal  profession  would  seem 
to  indicate  that  business  and  the  law  have  generally  gone  band  in  hand,  or 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  219 

that  a  ready  transfer  of  activity  has  been  [Mssible  from  one  to  tlie  otlier.  It 
was  one  of  the  observations  of  the  Hon.  James  Bryce,  author  of  the  "Amer- 
ican Commmi'd^eaith,"  on  the  occasion  of  his  recent  visit  to  this  countn,-.  tiiat 
the  lawyers  in  this  country  were  turning  more  and  more  of  their  attention  to 
general  forms  of  business  and  devoting  themselves  less  exclusively  to  their 
jjrofession.  In  a  county  the  size  of  Branch  the  special  dei^artments  of  the  law 
have  of  course  never  furnished  enough  business  for  one  man,  and  the  prac- 
tice has  been  what  is  termed  "  general."  A  few  have  develoijed  aptitude  as 
pleaders,  or  in  criminal  prosecution,  or  in  caisultation  practice. 

As  one  comes  down  the  consecutive  decafles  since  the  pioneer  courts 
were  held  in  Branch  county  he  finds  an  increasing  per  cent,  of  college 
trained  lawyers.  And  the  recjuirements  for  graduation  at  the  ordinary  law 
school  of  forty  years  ago  have  been  raised  fron>  time  to  time,  so  that  the 
preparation  for  the  legal  profession  has  been  broadened  and  diversified  to 
keep  pace  with  the  enlarged  arena  which  is  now  occupied  by  the  law,  Tlie 
home-schoole<:l  aspirant  of  sixty  years  ago  would  read  a  few  volimtes  in  the 
office  of  one  whom  he  chose  to  call  his  "  preceptor,"  and  would  then  go  be- 
fore a  committee  of  local  attorneys  appointed  by  the  circuit  court,  as  was  the 
case  with  tlie  first  lawyer  admitted  to  practice  in  Branch  county.  The  mem- 
l)ers  of  this  committee,  though  practical  lawyers,  not  often  possessed  aWlity 
as  examiners,  and  the  questions  asked  of  the  applicant  seldom  touched  the 
depths  of  law  and  were  often  irrele\'ant. 

But  at  Ann  Arbor,  even  fifty  years  ago.  the  law  student  after  complet- 
ing his  courses  was  put  through  a  six  days'  test  of  oral  examination,  con- 
ducted by  such  eminent  men  as  Judge  Campbell.  Judge  Cooley,  Judge  I.  C. 
Walker,  Judge  E.  C.  Walker  of  Detroit,  and  Judge  Stacey  of  Tecumseh. 
After  successfully  passing  this  battery  of  questioners  it  was  likely  that  the 
applicant  would  ever  after^vard  have  a  high  respect  for  the  dignity  of  his 
profession  and  be  well  qualified  for  its  duties. 

Passing  along  two  decades  from  the  roll  of  1875.  it  will  be  interesting 
to  notice  a  similar  list  of  Branch  coimty  attorneys  for  the  year  1895.  They 
are — 

At  Coldwater:  D.  B.  Dennis,  C.  D.  Randall.  J.  R.  Qiampion,  F.  E. 
Morgan,  T-  B,  Shipman,  N.  P.  Loveridge.  J.  G.  Parkhurst,  H.  C,  Clark.  H. 
H.  Barlow.  S.  B.  Kitchel,  N.  A.  Reynolds,  C.  N.  Legg,  William  H.  Comp- 
ton.  M.  D.  Campbell,  F,  D.  Newterry.  D.  M.  Wells,  J.  S.  Evans.  H.  C. 
Loveridge,  Melvin  E.  Peters,  L.  F.  Humphrey,  E.  E.  Palmer.  C.  C.  John- 
son, C.  U.  Champion,  A.  L.  Locke.  C.  F.  Howe,  E.  H.  I-overidge,  E,  E.  Kil- 
linger,  B.  C.  Thorpe,  Lerov  Palmer. 

From  Ouincy  the  following:  W,  H.  Lockerby,  A.  L.  Kinney,  E.  D. 
I^ckerbv. 

And  from  Union  City:     M.  A.  Merrifield,  George  Styles. 

The  changes  in  the  personnel  during  twenty  years  had  been  many,  but 
the  roll  for  1895  almost  represents  the  present  membership  of  the  bar.  as  will 
be  seen  by  reference  to  the  roll  of  attorneys  for  igo6,  herewith  given : 

J.  G.   Parkhurst   (deceased);  John   R.   Champion.  Coklwater,   Franklin 


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220  HISTORY  OF  BRA\'CH  COUNTY 

E.  Morgan,  Coldwater;  John  B.  Shipman,  Coldwater;  Henry  C.  Ciark,  Cold- 
water;  H.  H.  Barlow,  Coldwater;  Norman  A.  Reynolds,  Coldwater;  Charles 
N.  Legg,  Coldwater;  Miio  D.  Campbell,  Coldwater;  Frank  D.  Newberry, 
Coldwater;  John  S.  Evans,  Coldwater;  Henry  C.  Loveridge,  Coldwater; 
Leonard  F.  Humphrey,  Coldwater ;  Elmer  E.  Palmer,  Coldwater ;  Clayton 
C.  Johnson,  Coldwater;  Charles  U.  Champion,  Coldwater;  Charles  F.  Howe, 
Coldwater;  Emest  H.  Loveridge,  Coldwater;  Leroy  Palmer,  Coldwater; 
Frank  B.  Reynolds,  Coldwater;  Mark  S.  Andrews,  Coldwater;  William  H. 
Lockerby,  Quincy;  M.  A.  Merrifield,  Union  City;  George  Styles,  Union 
City ;  Milo  Thompson,  Bronson ;  A.  L.  Locke,  Bronson ;  H.  J.  Barton,  Union 
City;  W.  Glenn  Cowell,  Quincry;  A.  Riley  Crittendon,  Coldwater;  Perry  J. 
Ashdown,  Union  City;  Bert.  E.  Barlow,  Coldwater;  O.  M.  Bowen,  Bronson; 
W.  Edwin  Hodgman,  Coldwater. 

According  toi  the  records,  the  members  of  the  bar  of  Branch  County  met 
at  the  home  of  Hon.  C.  D.  Randall,  Febmary  2,  1903,  for  the  purpose  of  re- 
organizing the  Bar  Association  for  Branch  County.  Pres.  C.  D;  Randall  of 
the  old  association  was  in  the  chair,  and  in  the  absence  of  Secretairy  Cham- 
pion, F.  B,  Reynolds  was  secretary  pro  tem.  A  committee  on  articles  of 
association  reported  as  follows:  "Whereas,  the  records  containing  the  con- 
stitution and  proceedings  of  the  original  association  have  been  lost,  said  as- 
sociation having  been  in  existence  nearly  half  a  century  and  many  of  the 
members  thereof  having  been  among  the  most  eminent  lawyers,  of  the  state; 
therefore,  for  the  purpose  of  continuing  and  perpetuating  said  Bar  Associa- 
tion, we  report  for  your  consideration  the  following  form  of  constitution,  etc." 

This  gives  the  past  history  of  the  association,  although  it  seems  that  the 
committee  was  in  error  as  to  the  time  the  old  association  had  existed,  a  quar- 
ter of  a  century  being  nearer  the  correct  time  than  half  a  century.  Only  two 
elections  have  been  held  up  to  the  time  of  this  writing,  and  the  same  officers 
were  chosen  at  both  meetings,  namely:  Gen.  J.  G.  Parkhurst,  president; 
H.  H.  Barlow,  vice  president;  Wallace  E.  Wright,  secretary,  the  coimty 
clerk  being  by  provision  of  the  constitution  secretary  of  the  association,  and 
the  present  secretary  therefore  being  Henry  E.  Straight;  F.  B.  Reynolds, 
treasurer;  E.  E.  Palmer,  C.  U.  Champion  and  Mark  S.  Andrews,  executive 
committee. 

'The  association  has  been  called  together  several  times  to  pass  resolutions 
on  the  death  of  prominent  members.  October  5th  following  the  organiza- 
tion, they  met  on  the  occasion  of  the  death  of  Caleb  D.  Randall ;  in  January 
1905.  on  the  death  of  William'  H.  Compton;  in  August,  1905,  after  the  death 
of  Simon  B.  Kitchel,  and  in  May,  1906,  when  the  president,  Gen.  Parkhurst, 

1  away. 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 


CHAPTER  XXVH. 

THE  MEDICAL  PROFESSION. 

A  chapter  on  t1ie  medical  profession  of  Branch  county  must  of  course 
be  largely  biographical.  It  is  in  the  men  who  have  practiced  medicine  in  the 
county  that  the  chief  interest  centers.  Therefore  this  chapter  may  be  confined 
to  an  orderly  mention  of  the  members  of  the  profession  past  and  present  and 
a  brief  description  of  some  of  the  contrasted  conditions  that  distinguish  med- 
ical practices  of  pioneer  times  from  that  of  the  present. 

The  pioneer  doctor  had  a  wide  and  varied  sphere  of  activity.  The  set- 
tlers were  comparatively  few  and  were  scatteretl  here  and  there  over  a  lar^e 
area;.  The  practice  coming*  from  half  the  county  no  more  than  justified  one 
physician  in  devoting  all  his  time  to  professional  duties.  Thus  Dr.  Alvah 
Randall,  the  pioneer  physician  of  Bronson,  who  settled  in  that  township  in 
1835.  was  the  only  doctor  in  a  country  covered  by  a  radius  of  ten  miles  from 
his  home.  When  the  pioneers  of  Gilead  needed  a  physician  they  sent  for  Dr. 
Randall,  who  came  over  the  new-made  and  rough  roads  that  led  through  the 
woods  rmd  across  the  marshes  to  the  cabins  of  Gilead.  And  the  same  was 
true  in  the  other  surrounding  townships. 

On  the  other  side  of  the  county,  in  Quincy,  Dr.  Enos  G.  Berry  filled  a 
similar  and  amtemporary  position.  He  bad  come  to  the  township  in  1835, 
at  the  age  of  twenty-two,  A  former  biography  says  of  him,  "  He  visited  the 
poor  and  destitute  without  charge,  and  took  no  mortgages  or  other  securities 
of  those  unable  to  pay,  but  gave  them  such  time  as  their  circumstances  re- 
quired; and,  with  other  duties,  continued  the  practice  of  medicine  for  about 
thirty  years,"  This  character  of  generosity  and  sympathy  is  the  crowning' 
tribute  to  the  pioneer  doctors.  Compared  with  present  day  standards,  their 
skill  and  knowledge  was  small.  But  of  largeness  of  heart  and  of  the  old  qual- 
ity of  loving-kindness  they  had  an  abundance  that  rendered  tlieir  ministra- 
tions in  sickness  and  trouble  effectua!  where  greater  skill  would  not  have 
availed. 

In  the  north  part  of  the  county,  at  Union  City,  the  i>ioneer  work  in  med- 
icine was  done  bv  the  Hurd  brothers,  of  whom  there  were,  during  the  thir- 
ties and  forties,  three  whose  practice  covered  a  larg'e  territory  in  Branch  and 
Calhoun  counties.  Theodore  C.  and  William  P,  Hurd,  the  latter  locating 
at  Union  City  in  1840  and  the  former  some  time  previous,  were  men  of  high 
professional  standards  and  with  natural  inclination  for  their  work.  Shortly 
after  the  death  of  Theodore  C.  Hurd  in  1845  another  brother,  Henry  S., 
located  in  Union  City. 

All  these  physicians  lived  in  the  "saddle-bag"  period.     They  traveled 


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232  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

about  on  horseback,  with  their  saddle-bags  filled  with  medicine — principally 
quinine  and  calomel — and  a  few  surgical  appliances  then  in  use.  There  were 
no  telephones  to  use  in  caJHng  the  doctor,  and  a  horseback  rider  galloping  to 
town  became  the  accepted  signal  to  all  the  neighbors  along  the  route  that 
some  one  was  i!l  at  the  rider's  home  and  the  latter  wa.s  "  going  for  the  doc- 
tor." Tn  reaching  his  patient  the  physician  often  had  a  long  ride,  in.  the  very 
early  days  o^'er  a  way  marked  by  blazed  trees,  with  toilsome  detours  around 
swainps  or  in  order  to  cross  a  stream  swollen  by  recent  rains.  Add  the  many 
hardships  imposed  by  darkness  and  storm  and  bitter  cold,  and  it  is  easy  to 
point  the  contrast  between  conditions  of  practice  sixty  years  ago  and  now. 

Another  point  alluded  to  by  a  well  known  niember  of  the  proifession  in 
Branch  county  is  that  there  was  very  !ittle  "ofifice  practice"  among  the  early 
doctors.  The  numerous  "  chronic  "  afflictions  that  are  familiar  by  name  if 
not  by  personal  experience  to  people  of  this  age  were  hardly  apprehended  at 
that  time.  Chills  and  fex'ers  brought  on  by  the  miasmas  of  the  swamps  or 
new-plowed  soil  were  r^^iiarJy  expected  each  year  in  the  "  sickly  season." 
The  remedies  were  quinine  and  calomel,  given  in  such  quantities  as  would 
appall  our  physicians  in  modern  practice.  Not  one  grain  of  these  drugs  is 
given  now  where  forty  were  prescril^  less  than  lialf  a  century  ago.  Tliough' 
their  duties  of  diagnosis  and  prescription  were  thus  comparatively  light,  the 
doctors  generally  visited  the  patieits  in  their  homes,  and  few  made  any 
effort  to  maintain  a  regularly  appointed  office  and  definite  office  hours. 

Turning  now  to  the  center  of  the  county,  at  Coldwater  we  find  the  field 
of  medical  practice  covered  at  an  early  date,  the  representatives  of  the  pro- 
fession being  continuous  from  1830.  Dr.  William  Henry  is  said  to  have 
been  the  first,  while  contemporaneous  with  part  of  his  career  in  CoMwater 
was  Dr.  Enoch  Chase,  a  man  of  considerable  prominence,  though  he  re- 
mained in  this  county  only  until  1834- 

One  of  the  familiar  streets  in  Coldwater  that  intersects  Chicago  street 
is  Hanchelt  street,  so  named  in  honor  of  t!ie  pioneer  doctor.  William  Han^ 
chett,  who  came  to  Coldwater  in  1832.  For  nearly  twenty  years  he  remained 
at  the  head  of  the  profession  in  the  county.  In  1846  he  associated  w^th  him- 
self in  practice  his  nq>hew,  Dr.  S.  .S.  Cutter,  another  well  known  physician, 
who  died  about  1882.  These  men  were  not  alone  active  in  their  profession, 
but  a  penisal  of  these  pages  and  of  former  historical  works  cm  Branch  coun- 
ty will  show  their  names  mentioned  in  connection  with  numerous  undertak- 
ings of  importance.  They  erected  the  first  high-grade  hotel  structure  in 
Coldwater,  the  old  Franklin  Hoiise,  which  was  aftenvard  burned  and  which 
stood  where  the  Arlington  is  now  located,  at  the  corner  of  Chicago  and  Han- 
chett  streets.  Dr.  Hanchett  practiced  here  until  the  middle  of  the  century, 
when  he  moved  out  west  and  died  in  Oregon. 

The  careers  of  all  these  early  physicians  have  been  sketched  in  the  His- 
tory of  1879,  and  it  is  only  necessary  to  recall  the  names  of  some  of  them. 
These  were :  Dr.  Darwin  I.ittlefield,  whose  name  will  be  mentioned  later  in 
connection  with  the  first  organized  movement  for  the  advancement  oi  the 
medical  profession  in  Branch  county,  as  also  the  name  of  Dr.  H.  B.  Stillman, 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  223 

\vhose  signature  as  county  clerk  is  to  be  found  on  many  records  in  the  court 
house.     In  the  same  connection  will  he  found  the  name  of  Dr,  Mathew  Gill. 

The  shuttle  of  time  is  continually  removing  the  old  and  replacing  with 
the  new,  and  so  we  find  that  the  greater  number  of  the  physicians  who  were 
in  active  practice  at  the  time  of  the  publication  of  the  former  history  of  the 
county  are  now  dead  or  retired,  and  a  new  generation  has  succeeded  them. 
Dr.  S.  S,  Cutter  was  one  of  the  first  to  pass  away  after  the  appearance  of 
the  former  history.  His  career  was  intimately  identifie<l  with  Coldwater. 
He  was  the  first  mayor  after  its  incoriroration  as  a  dty ;  he  was  a  member 
of  the  special  commission  appointed  to  investigate  the  state  charitable  insti- 
tution, and  one  of  the  results  of  the  recommendations  of  that  commission  was 
the  establishment  of  the  State  Public  School  in  Coidwater;  lie  took  a  prom- 
inent part  in  local  education,  and  his  activity  belongetl  to  the  general  history 
of  the  city  rather  than  to  any  one  particular  chapter. 

Another  physician  who  has  passed  away  was  Chester  S.  Tucker,  who  left 
liis  extensive  property  interests,  acquired  in  practice  and  business,  to  the 
Home  Missionary  Society  of  the  Presbyterian  Churcli.  Dr.  D.  C.  Powers, 
who  died  November  4,  1887,  was  also  versatile  in  his  interests.  He  came  to 
Coldwater  before  the  war,  sen-ed  in  the  army  as  a  surgeon,  was  at  one  time 
mayor  of  the  city,  was  a  director  of  the  Southern  Micliigan  Nationail  Bank, 
and  ga\-e  considerable  time  to  matters  of  puhhc  welfare.  On  February  24, 
iqo3,  death  claimed  Dr.  James  M.  Long,  who  had  been  in  Coldwater  since 
1861,  and  was  ranked  along  with  the  others  just  mentioned.  Of  the  same 
group  was  Dr.  George  K.  Smith,  who  liad  begun  his  practice  in  Coldwater  in 
1852,  and  after  an  absence  of  some  years  and  activity  in  other  lines,  he  re- 
sumed practice  in  1869. 

When  in  his  prime  the  late  Isaac  P.  Alger  was  one  of  the  leading  physi- 
cians of  Branch,  county.  Dying  at  his  home  in  Coldwater,  April  18,  1904,  he 
was  then  in  his  eighty-fourth  year,  and  was  ai  Branch  county  pioneer  by  vir- 
tue of  over  sixty  years'  residence  within  the  coimty.  He  studied  medicine 
with  Drs.  Hanchett  and  Stiilman  at  Coldwater,  beginning  his  practice  in  the 
forties.  He  was  one  of  the  first  students  of  Rush  Medical  College  of  Chica- 
go. Dr.  Alger  was  noted  for  his  public  spirit,  and  his  interest  in  pioneer  af- 
fairs and  the  history  of  his  county  continued  till  his  death. 

Along  with  the  names  of  Dr.  S.  S.  Cutter  and  Dr.  Alger  as  physicians 
of  the  pioneer  period  stands  that  of  John  H.  Beach,  who  began  practice  in 
Coldwater  in  1849  and  continued  until  his  death  in  1878.  As  already  indi- 
cated, the  practice  of  the  early  physicians  was  of  a  general  nature,  and  there 
were  no  specialists  in  the  county  until  very  recently.  But  Dr.  Beach,  while 
having  a  general  practice,  excelled  as  a  surgeon,  and  that  at  a  time  when  the 
science  of  surgery  had  hardlv  begun  to  develop.  He  served  as  a  regimental 
surgeon  during  the  war.  and' after  his  return  to  Coldwater  his  skill  as  a  sur- 
geon was  in  constant  demand  both  at  home  and  in  various  parts,  of  the  state. 

The  decade  of  the  eighties  saw  the  passing  of  the  pioneer  doctor  of 
Union  City,  William  P.  Hnrd,  who  died  October  to,  1881.  Others  were 
Dr.  Thomas  Cody,  of  Batavia.  who  died  April  12,  1882;  Dr.  M.  E.  Cha^n- 


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224  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

cey,  who  was  the  first  physician  of  Girard,  beginning  practice  there  in  1843, 
and  died  May  7,  1884:  Israel  Wheeier,  of  Gilead,  who  died  October  4,  1887, 
aged  se\'enty-four. 

During  the  nineties'  there  passed  away  Charles  Reading,  of  Quincy. 
July  2,  1S91,  at  the  age  of  eighty-six;  Jesse  L.  Cady,  at  Coldwater,  June  21, 
r8()2;  Edward  Twiss,  at  Union  City,  May  12,  1895,  aged  seventy;  Thomas 
W.  Watkins,  at  Quincy,  June  28,  l8g6;  Dennis  W.  Rogers,  at  Union  City, 
January  24,  1898;  Timothy  Baker,  at  Union  City,  February  20.  1898,  aged 
eighty-one  years;  Dorr  Fitzgerald,  who  had  been  in  Union  City  since  the 
seventies,  cm  August  27,  1898,  aged  seventy-eight;  and  Jay  Wright,  at  Union 
City,  May  3,  1899. 

Ocidjer  24,  1897,  ended  the  remarkable  career  of  William  B.  Spragne, 
after  living  one  hundred  years,  seven  months  and  twenty-six  days.  Gradu- 
ating from  the  medical  college  at  Fairfield,  New  York,  in  1826,  in  the  spring 
of  1835  he  came  to  Coldwater  in  comjiany  with  Bradley  Crippen,  Pliilo  H, 
Crippen,  L.  D.  Crip]jen,  James  Fiske  and  Rev.  Francis  Smith.  He  was  in 
active  practice  only  a  few  years,  but  he  early  became  connected  with  public 
affairs,  being  an  associate  judge  of  the  circuit  court  in  1836,  was  also  judge 
of  probate  and  a  member  of  the  legislature.  He  was  in  all  respects  a  pioneer, 
and  as  authbr  of  articles  on  pioneer  life,  among  others  "  The  Origin  of  the 
City  of  Coldwater,"  he  contributed  much  to  the  permanent  historical  knowl- 
edge of  the  county. 

Lansing  C.  Marsh,  who  began  practice  in  Coldwater  in  1853,  died  in 
Coldwater  October  14,  1900,  at  the  mature  age  of  seventy-nine.  Dr.  Cor- 
nelius H.  Woodcox,  who  first  practiced  in  Gilead  and  later  resided  in  Cold- 
water,  died  April  21,  1903.  and  on  January  4,  1904,  Coldwater  lost  Dr. 
Datiiel  S.  CunningharD.  November  12,  1904,  Quincy  lost  Francis  E.  Mar^, 
who  had  practiced  there  for  over  twenty-five  years,  and  was  seventy  years 
old  at  the  time  of  his  death.  Less  than  a  year  later,  on  March  28,  1905,  oc- 
curred the  death  of  Hawkins  A.  King  at  Quincy,  at  the  age  of  seventy-six. 
He  had  also  been  connected  with  the  medical  profession  of  tha,>t  village  a 
ntimber  of  years.  The  most  recent  loss  by  death  to  tlie  medical  profession 
of  the  county  was  Dr.  Eva  J.  Outwater,  who  died  at  Bronson  January  9, 
1906. 

The  older  physicians  have  nearly  all  gone,  and  there  are  only  a  few 
whose  careers  in  the  county  go  back  twenty-five  years.  In  Coldwater  the 
group  of  older  physicians  would  include  Stephen  H.  Oizbe,  who  has  been 
practicing  in  the  county  since  1870  and  in  Coldwater  for  twenty-seven  years; 
L.  A.  Warsabo,  who  hasi  been  in  the  city  about  the  same  length  of  time,  and 
William  Wilson  and  Newton  Baldwin.  In  Quincy  Dr.  Edson  Blackman  has 
been  in  practice  about  thirty  years.  Dr.  Henry  P.  Mowry  has  been  regis- 
tered at  Bronson  since  1883. 

In  January,  1900,  the  new  law  went  into  effect  requiring  the  registra- 
tion of  all  physicians  practiciing  in  the  county  to  be  made  with  the  county 
clerk.  In  the  book  kept  for  that  purpose  will  be  found  the  names  of  the 
practitioners  residing  in  the  county  at  that  time  as  well  as  subsequent  regis- 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  225 

trations.  From  tiiis  record  the  names  of  those  registered  for  practice  in  the 
different  localities  of  the  county  have  been  compil«i. 

In  the  city  of  Coldwater  the  physicians  in  order  of  registry  are  as  fol- 
lows : 

Newton  R.  Baldwin,  L.  A.  Warsabo,  E.  T.  Gamble,  Othello  Waters, 
Thomas  J.  Turner,  David  H.  Wood,  Daniel  D.  Cunining:ham,  James  M. 
Long,  George  Ferguson,  George  D.  Slocum.  William  Wilson,  A.  G.  Hol- 
brook,  Frank  G.  Legge,  Samuel  Schultz,  Dana  G.  Cook,  Isaac  P.  Alger, 
Cornelius  H.  Woodcox,  Lansing  C.  Marsh  (who  died  in  1900),  Howard  A. 
Grube,  F.  W.  Stewart,  Dresser  B.  Vincent.  Geoi^e  V.  Voorhees,  Stqahen  H, 
Clizbe  (who  moved  to  Coldwater  in  1902),  James  B.  Re«ce,  John  D.  Bus- 
kirk  (since  removed),  Dwight  C.  Crawford,  E.  E.  Schwartz  (osteopath), 
William  W.  Swett,  James  M.  Cushman:  recent  certificates  filed  are  those  of 
L.  E.  Hawes  (osteopath),  Endora  V.  Hallam,  Edward  R.  Williams,  Sadie 
L.  Olmsted,  E.  S.  Samm,  James  C.  Valentine, 

Those  registering  from  Union  City  were : 

Arthur  S.  Cornell  (since  removed),  William  C,  Henderson,  Silas  B. 
Frankha\iser  (since  removed),  Edward  H.  Hurd  (a  nephew  of  the  pioneer 
doctor,  W.  P.  Hurd),  Cora  B.  Comeil  (since  removed),  A.  Dorothea  Payne 
(removed),  J.  P.  Janes  and  Estelle  Jones,  who  registered  in   1904. 

At  Kinderhook  those  registered  were  Wilbur  A.  Griffith  (now  in  Cold- 
water),  Lafayette  Scheidler,  Fred  H,  Harris, 

At  Girard  were  G.  S.  Giilet  (who  removed  to  Union  City),  Frank  B. 
Marshall  (removed),  Edwin  M.  Chavincey,  Ernest  E.  Hancock. 

Matteson  was  represented  by  Morgan  Shafer,  \\'ho  died  December  30, 
1901. 

Batavia  furnishes  the  name  of  George  A.  McMasters  to  the  record. 

At  Bethel  were  William  H.  Baldwin  (since  removed  to  Quincy),  and 
John  W.  Martin. 

From  the  villag;e  of  Sherwood  were  regi5terei:l  Robert  Eraser,  Charles 
E.  Nelthrope,  and,  in  1904,  Clyde  A.  Leonard,  and,  in  1905,  F.  W.  Clements. 

South  Butler  is  the  registered  address  of  J,  D.  Bennett, 

The  names  from  Eronson  are  Seymour  M.  Cornell,  Levi  Sanders,  PyrI 
Gunsaullus,  John  E.  Outwater.  Henry  P.  Mowry,  Eva  J,  Cutwater,  and,  in 
1904.  Samuel  Turner,  and,  in  1906,  W.  P.  Mowry. 

At  Ouincy,  Edson  Blackman.  J.  M.  Elackman,  Henry  W.  Whitmore, 
Charles  S'  Sears,  James  J.  Williams,  Francis  E.  Marsh,  and,  in  1905,  Carl  S. 
Sears. 

East  Gilead  was  represented  by  Francis  Rupright. 

California  town  furnishes  the  name  of  Ezra  J.  Avers. 

Though  the  present  centurj'  has  been  termed  the  ag-e  of  conventions 
and  associations,  in  which  almost  every  pursuit  or  profession  has  become  a 
nucleus  of  affihation  of  those  having  that  common  interest,  yet  organization 
for  professional  advancement  and  social  benefits  was  tried  in  Branch  county 
by  members  of  the  medical  profession  as  long  as  sixt)'-five  years  ago. 

One  of  the  few  items  of  local  interest  in  the  first  issue  of  the  Cold- 


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'226  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

water  Sentinel,  dated  April  i6,  1841,  records  a  meeting  of  the  physicians 
and  surg^eons  of  Branch  county  held  at  the  court  house  in  the  village  of 
Branch  to  organize  the  "  Branch  County  Medical  Society."  Those  who 
took  part  in  this  organization  were:  Darwin  Littlefield,  Mathew  Gill,  Henry 
B.  Stillman.  Lofus  Hyatt  and  William  P.  Hurd.  Dr.  Littlefield  was  eiected 
president,  Dr.  Hyatt  vice  president.  Dr.  Gill  secretary.  Dr.  Stillman  treas- 
urer, leaving  Dr.  Hurd  as  the  only  unofficial  member.  The  annual  meeting 
of  thig  society  was  set  for  May,  and  so  far  as  known  the  meetings  were  held 
for  a  few  years.  But  eventually  the  society  became  moribund,  and  for  many 
years  its  activitj'  was  intermittent  if  there  was  any  at  all. 

Some  four  or  five  years  a|go  a  complete  reorganization  of  medical  socie- 
ties took  place.  Each  county  in  the  state  of  Michigan  now  has  an  official 
county  medical  society,  membership  in  which  is  open  to  all  physicians  of  the 
county  upon  payment  of  the  membership  fee  of  two  dollars  a  year.  By  virtue 
of  his  membership  in  the  county  society  each  physician  is  a  member  of  the 
Michigan  State  Medical ,  Society.  By  the  system  of  representajtion  each 
county  society  is  entitled  to  send  two  delegates  to  the  annual  session  of  the 
state  society.  Tlie  election  of  these  delegates  to  the  state  body  is  at  present 
the  only  official  activity  of  the  Branch  County  Medical  Society,  and  the  or- 
ganization may  be  called  active  only  so  far  as  to  comply  with  the  regula- 
tions affecting  a  subordinate  body  of  the  state  society,  lliere  is  an  annual 
election  of  officers,  and  those  sen'ing  at  the  present  writing.  May,  1906.  are 
Dr.  S.  H.  Clizbe,  president,  and  Dr.  S.  Schultz,  secretary'  and  treasurer.  The 
highest  representative  organization  in  American  medicine  is  the  Americaki 
Medical  Association.  Its  membership  is  made  up  of  members  of  the  various 
state  societies  and,  therefore,  of  the  county  societies.  So  it  is  seen  that  mem- 
bership in  the  county  society  is  the  first  degree  thait  must  l>e  taken  before  any 
higher  organization  may  be  reached. 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 


CHAPTER  XXVin. 
FRATERNITIES  A\D  CLUBS. 

Tyre  Lodge  No.  i8.  F.  &  A.  M..  tlie  oldest  fraternal  organization  in 
Coldwater,  was  organized  April  i,  1847,  with  the  following  as  charter 
members :  John  T.  Haynes,  Amos  Bacon,  Henry  Bnell,  Samuel  P.  Noyes, 
Icbabod  Davis.  James  Shoecraft,  Myall  P.  Comstock,  Elisha  Warren,  Brad- 
ley Crippen,  William  Keyes,  Samuel  Etheridge,  Ira;  Bronson,  Levi  Daggett. 
The  lodge  now  has  a  membership  of  three  hundred  and  thirty-five,  and  the 
present  officers  are:  W.  M,,  George  H.  Phinney;  S.  W.,  G,  C.  Kleindinst; 
J.  W.,  H.  A.  Close;  Treasurer,  W.  E.  Hodgeman;  Secretary.  C.  D.  Sutton; 
S.  D.,  C.  J.  Moore;  J.  D.,  M.  J.  Van  Aken;  Stewards,  F.  C.  Faulkerson. 
John  Ball. 

Jacobs  Commandery  No.  10,  K.  T.,  Coldwater,  was  organized  March  3, 
i860,  in  response  to  a  petition  signed  by  Sir  Knights  F.  T.  Eddy,  Wailes 
Adamis,  N.  L.  Southworth,  A.  G.  Rose,  J.  A.  Rose,  C.  H.  Putnam.  R.  H. 
Drake,  Artemas  Allen,  S  L.  Dart,  Lyman  Sleeper,  who  were  the  charter 
mem1)ers.  Its  present  officers  are:  C.  E.  Wise,  E.  C;  A.  E.  Pearce,  Gen.; 
F.  T-  Dnrt,  C.  G. ;  H.  B.  George.  Pre!. ;  E.  A.  Brown,  S.  W. ;  F.  D.  Atwater, 
J.  W.;  H.  A.  Close,  Treas. :  B.  F.  Rolph,  Rec. ;  G.  E.  Kleindinst.  Sfd  B, ; 
L.  E.  Lockwood,  Sw.  B. ;  Charles  G.  Moore,  War. ;  A.  R.  Grove,  Sent.  The 
commandery  now  has  a  membership  of  one  hundred  and  forty-six.  The 
membership  in  i860  was  21,  in  1870  was  70.  in  1880  wajs  74,  in  1890  was 
96.  in  1900  was  no. 

Temple  Chapter  No,  2T.  R.  A.  M.,  Coldwater.  was  chartered  Novem- 
ber TO,  1858,  with  the  following  members :  J.  H.  Beech.  Artemas  Alien,  S. 
L.'Dart,  R.  H.  Drake.  J.  B.  Stevenson,  E.  Mather,  A.  McCrea,  E,  Perry.  Levi 
Dvgatt.  L,  N.  Soutliworth,  Wales  Adams,  Daniel  Burns.  The  present  officers 
are :  C.  D.  Sutton.  K.  P, :  H.  A.  Close.  K. ;  C.  E.  Wise,  S. ;  B.  L.  Van  Aken. 
Treas.;  B.  M.  Fellows,  Secy.;  W.  H.  Simons,  C.  H.;  B.  F.  Rolpb,  P.  S. ; 
E.  A.  Brown,  R.  A.  C ;  O.  Waters,  M.  3  V. ;  L.  E.  Lockwood,  M.  2  V. ;  F.  R. 
Fiske,  M.  I  V. ;  A.  R.  Groves,  Sent. 

Mount  Moriah  Council  No.  31,  Royal  and  Select  Masons,  was  formed 
in  November.  T859,  under  a  dispensation  granted  by  the  T.  I.  P.  G,  of  the 
state  of  Michigan,  its  first  officers  being  as  follows :  T.  L  G.  M..  S.  L.  Dart; 
D.  I.  G.  M.,  M.  Mansfield;  P.  C.  of  W.,  R.  H.  Drake;  C.  of  G.,  J.  B.  Steven- 

"The  data  concerning  lodges  and  societies  was  sought  by  letters  and  in  some  cases 
personal  requests.  The  precise  information  could  not  he  obtained  in  every  instance,  and 
a  number  of  excellent  organijations  are  not  noticed  because  no  replies  were  made  to  the 
requests. 


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2iJ8  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

son;  G.  S.,  D.  Bovee;  Recorder,  F.  T.  Eddy;  Treasurer,  A.  Allen. 

Coldvvater  has  the  honor  of  having'  the  oldest  Eastern  Star  Chapter  in 
the  state,  it  being'  Number  i. 

Sherwood'  Lodge  No.  428,  F.  &  A.  M.,  was  organized  August  16,  1897, 
with  these  charter  members:  W.  B.  Chiesman,  W.  E.  Hanna,  H.  J.  Fonner, 
G.  H.  Seymour,  C.  B.  Wilcox,  Henry  Rmiyan,  C.  E.  Swain,  A.  R.  Klose, 
H.  J.  Klose,  Daniel  McCarty,  L.  P.  Wilcox,  Frank  Thorns,  E.  W.  Watkins. 
J.  F.  Mclntyre,  Robert  Eraser.  The  present  officers  are:  W.  M.,  R.  Eraser; 
S.  W.,  F.  W.  Clement;  J.  W.,  E.  H.  Warner;  Treas.,  Fred  Hass;  Secretary, 
H,  Runyaii;  S.  D.,  Daniel  McCarty:  j,  D.,  F.  Tillotson;  Stewards,  Irving 
Evert,  Wm.  Wrigglesworth ;  Tyler,  L.  P.  Lovejoy. 

Centennial  Rebekah  Lodg«  No.  22,  at  Coklwater,  was  instituted  March 
30,  1S76  (hence  the  name),  with  the  following  charter  members:  W,  H. 
and  Mary  Allen.  Alfred  and  Eucina  Milnes  (Mr..  Milnes  being  the  first  noble 
grand),  R.  D.  and  Eliza  J.  Jefferds,  William  and  Sa|rah  Sawyer,  L.  M.  and 
M.  J.  Grey,  L.  B.  and  Laura  A.  Gibbs,  Charles  and  Etta  Johnson,  Fred  and 
Mrs.  Chaffer,  J.  P.  and  R.  A.  Elynn,  Robert  and  Louisa  Willis,  Leroy  and 
Laura  Butler,  William'  and  Hajtie  M.  Hurst,  R.  C.  Sawdey,  Mary  J.  Barnes, 
Josie  Henderson.  The  present  officers  are:  Sarah  Withington,  N.  G. ; 
Charlotte  Clement,  V.  G. ;  Ida  Mix,  Rec.  Sec. ;  Hattie  Sherwood,  Fin.  Sec. ; 
Lizzie  Smith.  Treas.  Starting  with  a  membership  of  27,  the  lodge  now  has 
165  members  in  good  standing. 

The  Odd  Fellows  are  one  of  the  oldest  fraternities  in  Coldvvater,  the 
other  three  branches,  from  which  no  data  were  furnished,  being  Coldwater 
Ijiidge  No.  31.  I.  O.  O.  F.,  Canton  Milnes  No.  2,  P.  M.  of  I.  O.  O.  F.,  and 
Encampment  No.  86. 

Lodge  No.  62,  A.  O.  U.  W.,  oif  Coldwater,  was  instituted  March  3, 
1879,  with  the  following  charter  members:  J.  Clark  Pierce,  David  B.  Pnr- 
inton,  William  B.  Keller,  Henry  A.  Wolcott,  James  R.  Dickey,  George  B. 
Tompkins.  Howard  Broadhead,  Lewis  A.  Peddiam,  Samuel  R.  Luxmore, 
Warren  A.  Blye.  Frank  A.  Fisk,  L.  H.  Edgerton,  A.  D.  Snyder,  A.  \\^  Buck- 
ley. Albert  Johnson,  Lainsing  M.  Gray,  Cyrus  H.  Burghardt,  Charles  W. 
Fairbanks,  George  W.  Lee,  Alonzo  J.  Munyon,  Isaac  E.  Ives,  John  J.  Lewis, 
Allen  Vanderhoof,  George  H.  Turner,  Mortimer  L  Knowles,  David  B, 
Hurst,  Wilham  H.  Stevens,  Isaac  Vanderhoof,  Oscar  W.  Lee,  Robert  Watson. 
Henry  Gage.  Frederick  W.  Flandermeyer,  Jerome  S.  Wolcott,  JelT'erson  S. 
Conover,  Earnest  D.  Lenders.  Levi  M.  Reynolds. 

Excelsior  Tent  No.  104,  K.  O.  T.  M.,  Coldwater.  was  organized  Novem- 
ber 23.  1903,  with  the  following  as  cliarter  members:  William  H.  Allen, 
George  Clegg,  F.  J.  Dart,  Henry  W.  Driskell.  Perry  W.  Ellinger,  Frank 
Finch,  .\rthur  Fonda,  George  Faust.  Dr.  E.  R.  Ferguson,  Fred  W.  Fish,  Wil- 
ber  French,  Lewis  H.  Fellers.  Dr.  E.  F.  Gamble,  George  M.  Howe,  Seymour 
Kleindinst.  Gerry  Kleindinst,  Clarence  E.  King,  F.  E.  Lyon,  G.  A.  Jewell, 
C.  E.  Jewell,  John  T.  Pickhaver,  A.  A,  Steller,  James"  R,  Stewart.  Peter 
Sandt,  C.  L.  Sawyer,  Fred  S.  Sisco,  John  Soderquist,  Samue!  Stone,  Dr. 
Samuel   Schultz,   E.   H.   Williams.      The  present   officers   are:      Past   Com- 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  229 

mander.  G,  E.  Kleiiiciinst;  Commander,  William  T.  Staiisell:  Lieutenant 
Commander,  S.  H.  Kleindinst;  Record  Keeper,  L.  H.  Feliers:  Finance 
Keeper.  George  Clegg;  Chaplain,  Charles  Knapp;  Master-at-Arms.  H.  W. 
Driskell:  First  Master  of  Gnards,  Peter  Parshall:  Second  Master  of  Guards. 
L-  W.  Burch:  Sentinel.  George  M.  Howe;  Picket.  George  Faust.  The  tent 
has  a  membership  of  31. 

CoMwater  Hive  No.  13S.  L.  O.  T.  M..  was  organized  Februa;i-y  13.  1892, 
with  the  following  as  charter  members:  Myra  Barron,  Locelia  Bingham, 
Cora  E.  Brown.  Mary  E.  Bracket,  Mary  L.  Broughton,  Ida  J.  Close,  Mary  S. 
Chapman.  Rose  B.  Carpenter.  Mary  E.  Crippen.  Minnie  J.  Cook.  Anna  L. 
Gowdy,  Tenriie  E.  Green.  Vnrbia  M.  Kleindinst.  May  Kleindinst.  Mary  A. 
Maynard.  Caroline  McCarty.  Luella  J.  Robinson.  Mary  E.  Smith.  Ceha 
Swaffieid.  Belle  Schmedlen,  Katie  C.  Turrill.  Lutie  M.  Twist.  Kittle  F.  War- 
sabo,  Hattie  A.  Wells.  Ella  A.  Yapp.  The  present  officers  are:  Past  Com- 
mander, Sophronia  Huestetl:  Commander,  Marj^  E.  Crip]jen:  Lieutenant 
Commander,  Lutie  M.  Twist;  Record  Keeper.  Cora  E.  Brown:  Finance 
Keeper,  Mary  A.  Maynard;  Chaplain,  Dora  Kinsman;  Sergeant,  Minnie 
Grimdy:  Mistress-at-Arms,  Katie  Jackson:  Sentinel.  Josephine  Jepson; 
Picket,  Nettie  Ouackenbush. 

L'nion  City  Chapter  No.  53,  R.  A.  M..  was  formal  under  dispensation 
in  1867,  and  the  first  meeting  was  held  on  July  25.  with  the  folloiwing  mem^ 
bers,  also  their  title  of  office:  Edwin  Perr\'.  H.  P.;  Rodney  Simons.  K. ; 
W.  H.  Kerr,  S.;  Albert  Ferris,  C.  of  H. ;  A.  B.  Aiken.  P.  S.;  S.  Rogei's, 
R.  A.  C;  Ira  Hitchcock,  M.  of  3  V.;  O.  A.  Cogswell,  M.  of  2  V.:  J.  D. 
Spoor,  M.  of  I  v.;  and  Edwin  Johnson,  making  ten  meniliers  in  all.  A.  B. 
Aiken  was  also  acting  secretary.  Of  this  list  of  members  one  is  still  living, 
Rodney  Simons,  who  resides  at  Athens,  and  when  Athens  chapter  was  in- 
stitiitetl  he  withdrew  from  Union  City  cha]iter  to  join  in  forming  the  new 
chapter  at  that  place,  and  is  at  the  present  time  holding  the  office  of  King 
in  Athens  chapter.  At  the  first  meeting  U.  D,  eleven  petitions  were  pre- 
sented. Two  of  the  petitioners  at  that  time  are  living.  Burr  Osborn  and  C. 
D.  Leach.  This  chapter  was  granted  a  charter  at  the  following  session  of 
Grand  Qiapter  on  January  8.  1868.  Up  to  this  time  twelve  members  had 
been  added,  making  a  member5hii>  at  the  time  the  charter  was  granted  of 
t«'enty-two. 

As  the  present  time  the  chapter  has  a  nice  room  well  furnished,  and 
the  chapter  is  in  a  flourishing  condition,  sixty-five  members,  with  the  follow- 
ing officers :  Charles  E.  Dav.  H.  P. :  J.  S.  Nesbitt,  K. ;  C.  H.  Lowell, 
S.;  J.  W.  Martin,  C.  of  H, ;  W.  M.  Hatch.  P.  S. ;  B.  W.  Bray.  R.  A. 
C. ;  L.  D.  Wilcox,  M.  of  3  V. ;  H.  W.  Rowe,  M.  of  2  V. ;  W.  H.  Bar- 
rett. M.  of  I  v.;  M.  F.  Buell,  Treas.;  H.  J,  Fonner,  Sec;  G.  W.  Blackwell, 
Sent. 

Union  City  Council  No.  37.  K-  &  S.  M.,  was  organized  February  g, 
1871.  It  now  has  a  membership  of  seventy-eight,  and  its  present  officers  are: 
Leon  A.  lohnson,  T.  I.  M.:  J.  W.  Martin,  D.  M.:  J.  H.  Anderson.  P,  C. 
W.:  L,  D.  Wilcox.  Treas.;  F.  H.  Whiting.  Rec. :  H.  J.  Tanner.  C.  of  G. ; 


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230  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

J.  S,  Nesbitt  C.  of  C. ;  C.  E.  Doy,  Stew. ;  George  Bkckwdl,  Sent. 

St.  Joseph  Tent  No.  93,  K.  O.  T.  M.,  Union  City,  was  organize«:l  in 
April,  1883,  with  the  followingf  as  charter  members:  George  E.  Smith, 
Martin  F.  Buell,  William  H.  Bond,  A.  M.  Lester,  H.  H.  Rowe.  D.  J.  Easton, 
E.  H.  Hiird,  J.  J.  Banford,  Charles.  Johnson.  Marcelhis  Morrell.  M.  P. 
Maxon,  Caleb  Padgham,  E.  S.  Bronson,  G.  W.  Miller,  E.  D.  Mcl^flin, 
H.  G.  Fisk,  A.  L.  Samiders,  C.  H.  Spring,  P.  R.  Shuler,  M.  D.  Slocum, 
C.  A.  Zimmerman.  The  present  officers  are :  Past  Commander,  P.  J.  Ash- 
down;  Commander,  A.  C.  Krieble:  Record  Keeper,  W.  H.  Rowe:  Finance 
Keeper,  W.  E.  Rnpright.  The  present  membership  is  one  hundred  and 
eighty-nine. 

Corbin  Post  No.  25,  W.  R.  C,  Union  City,  was  organized  November  7. 
1884,  with  the  following  charter  members:  Emily  Youngs,  Josephine  Bnell, 
Hattie  Harsh,  Elsie  Perry,  Alice  Rowe,  Lorane  Burnett,  Lucy  Simmons, 
Carrie  Seymour,  Belle  Merrill,  Margaret  Shuler,  Sa,rah  White,  Fidelia 
Wilderk,  Bell  Van  Dxiser.  Mary  Burnett,  Ida  Hopkins,  Sarahi  Cosier,  Addie 
Wells,  Adalaid  Crandall,  Sarah  Davis,  Lillie  Corhin,  Sofia  Banford,  Jane 
Palmer,  Martha  Mains,  Emma  Zimmerman.  Jennie  Palmer,  Ellen  Ryder.  The 
present  officers  are:  President,  Sarah  C.  Kindig;  Junior  Vice  President, 
Jane  Dennison;  Secretary,  Josephine  Buell;  Treasurer,  Kate  E.  Parker; 
Chaplain,  Althea  Stewart ;  Conductor,  Sarah  Eberhard ;  Assistant  Con- 
ductor, Roda  O'Rork;  Guard.  Jane  Palmer;  Assistant  Guard,  Ellen  Gifford; 
Pat.  Inst.,  Lucy  Simmons;  Press  Cor.,  Ada  Crandall.  The  present  mem- 
bership is  twenty-eight. 

Union  Lodge  No.  28,  F.  &  A.  M..  Union  City,  was  organized  Sep- 
tember 14,  1848,  and  worked  under  a  dispensation  until  January  10,  1849, 
when  a  charter  was  granted.  There  are  at  present  one  hundred  and  forty-six 
members  of  the  lodge.  The  present  officers  are:  Perrv  J.  Buell,  W.  M. : 
James  W.  Martin,  S.  W. ;  Fred  R.  Whitney,  J.  W.;  Charles  H.  I^well. 
Treasurer:  John  D.  Flewelling,  Secretary;  Frank  W.  Ackerman,  S.  D. ; 
Charles  O.  Johnson,  J.  D.;  George  W.  Blackwell.  Tyler;  John  D.  Parks, 
Stephen  E.  Lee,  Stewards. 

Quincy  Lodge  No.  276,  Mystic  Workers  of  the  World,  was  organized 
April  12,  1900.  with  the  following  as  charter  members:  Egbert  Palmateer, 
Edwin  Mudge,  George  E.  Walters,  Willis  Hall,  George  S.  Thompson, 
Charles  Harpham,  Carl  Stahl,  Emest  H.  Page,  C.  Henry  McCarty,  Myroo 
B.  Hoxie.  The  present  officers  are:  Edwin  Mudge,  Prefect;  Frank  Sellers, 
Monitor;  Edmimd  Lane,  Secretary:  Willis  Hall.  Banker;  Rilla  Muagc, 
Marshal;  Lucy  Sellers,  Warder:  David  Gary,  Sentinel;  Enos  Spencer. 
Chaplain.     The  lodge  now  has  fifty-nine  members. 

Hewitt  Lodge  No.  95,  D.  of  H-  A.  O.  U.  W.,  Union  City,  was  organ- 
ized March  2f,  1902,  with  tlie  following  as  charter  members:  Belle  Stitt, 
Delia  Bradner,  Edna  Griffin.  Alice  M.  Eddy,  John  R.  Eddy,  Chloe  L.  Wat- 
kins,  E.  W.  Watkins,  William  Henderson,  John  D.  newelling.  Nina  E. 
Bam^,  Iva  Brininstool,  Nettie  Krieble.  E.  Caroline  Hard,  E.  H.  Hurd, 
Emma  Hatch,  Henry  A.  Hatch.     The  present  officers  are:     Past  Chief  of 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  231 

Honor,  Mrs.  Chloe  L.  \^^atkins ;  Chief  of  Honor.  Mrs.  Etlna'  E.  Griffin ;  Lady 
of  Honor,  Mrs.  Frederidfa  Bruening;  Chief  of  Ceremonies,  Mrs.  Ahce  M. 
Eddy;  Recorder,  Mrs.  Sadie  Morris;  Financier,  Miss  Hilda  M.  Bruening; 
Receiver,  Mrs.  Mary  Kinyon;  Usher.  Mrs.  Iva  Brininstool ;  Inner  Watch, 
Mrs.  Majy  Ward;  Outer  Watch,  Mrs.  Sophia  Tyler;  Medical  Examiner, 
Mrs.  Estelle  Jones;  Organist.  Mrs.  Sadie  Morris.  The  present  membership 
is  thirty-six. 

Bound  to  Win  Hive  No.  481,  L.  O.  T.  M.,  Union  City.  waf>  organized 
April  25,  1894,  with  the  following  as  charter  members:  L.  Addie  Buell, 
Sarah  E.  Rheubottom,  Melissa  J.  Harris,  Emma  C.  Robinson,  Inez  Kent, 
Alice  Rex,  Eliza  L.  Jacobs,  Ellen  GifFord,  Rdiecca  Mann,  Gertrude  New- 
man, Nan  E.  Rheubottom.,  Alice  Miller,  Jennie  Hubbard,  Amelia  Carpenter, 
Flora  Wilder,  Rae  Turner  Snyder,  Adaline  Corwin,  Loia  Corwin,  Mary 
Rupright,  Ahce  Rowe,  Eva  J.  Dufur,  Caroline  Hurd.  Ttie  hive  has  a 
l^resent  membership  af  ninety-eight,  and  the  following  are  its  officers:  Past 
Commander,  Mrs.  Alice  Rowe ;  Commander,  Mrs,  Kate  Ricliards ;  Lieuten- 
ant Commander,  Mrs.  Jennie  Odren;  Record  Keeper,  Mrs.  Nellie  Merritt; 
Finance  Keeper,  Mrs.  Dollie  Rupright;  Chaplain,  Mrs,  Nora  Billings;  Phy- 
sician, M,  Estelle  Jones;  Sergeant,  Mrs.  Flora  Wilder;  Mi  stress-ait- Arms, 
Mrs.  I^ena  Tinney;  Sentinel,  Mrs.  Cora  Hackett;  Pickett,  Mrs.  Edith  Bas- 
sett;  Pianist,  Mrs.  Florence  Boynton. 

Union  Chapter  No.  193,  O.  E.  S.,  Union  City,  was  organized  September 
21,  1896,  with  twenty-nine  members,  Tlie  chapter  at  present  has  a  mem- 
bership of  one  hundred  and  sixty-seven,  and  those  now  filling  official  posi- 
tions are:  Mrs.  Minerva  Andereon,  W.  M.;  Leon  A.  Johnson,  W.  P.;  Mrs. 
Byrd  Buell,  A.  M. ;  Mrs.  Katherine  Richards,  Sec.;  Mrs.  Zae  Martin,  Treas. ; 
Mrs.  Ij>la  Corwin,  Cond. ;  Mrs.  Hattie  Day,  A.  Cond, ;  Mrs.  Emma  Weniple, 
Chap.;  Mrs.  Bertha  Wilcox,  Marl.;  Mrs.  Annetta  Barrett.  Organist:  Mrs. 
Ada  Merrifield,  Adah;  Mrs.  Francis  Hawley,  Ruth:  Mrs.  Altha  Whitney, 
Esther:  Mrs.  Mary  Hayner,  Martha;  Mrs.  Francis  Morrill,  Electa;  Mrs. 
Rosena  Hughes,  Warder-;  Mr.  G.  W.  Blackwell,  Sentinel. 

Select  Council  No.  1719,  Royal  Arcanum,  Union  City,  was  organized 
November  14,  1900.  with  charter  members:  F.  A.  Allen,  H.  W.  Bradner, 
L.  D.  Blair,  J.  D.  Barnard,  Wm.  Cain,  A.  Cuyler,  C.  E.  Day,  E,  E.  Den- 
nison,  Chas.  Defoe,  Enos  Cox,  G,  S.  Easton,  W.  C  Henderson,  J.  F.  Hart- 
ford, L,  L.  Johnson,  C.  H.  Lowell.  J-  D.  Mills,  A,  C.  McLouth,  G.  W.  Page, 
W.  L.  Robinffin,  O.  E,  Roe,  B.  Rathbum,  Harry  Rowe,  T.  P.  Riley,  E.  D. 
Smith,  W.  D.  Sawdey,  F,  J.  Sullivan,  A.  E.  Ward,  W.  Wheeler,  C.  H. 
WoodrufiE.  A,  H.  Fox,  C.  B.  Spore,  O.  Bumstein,  L.  D.  Wilcox,  F.  E. 
JohnsOT,  C.  C.  Boyer.  The  present  officers:  Regent,  J.  G.  Wetmore;  Sec., 
E.  J.  Worden,  Palst  Regent,  W.  L.  Robinson;  Vice  Regent,  M.  Jones; 
Chaplain,  L.  D.  Wilcox;  Guide,  Harry  Bingham-;  Collector,  Chas.  Lake; 
Trustees,  M.  D.  Krieble,  Chas.  Smith.  D,  C.  Collar. 

Union  City  Court  No.  4515,  Independent  Order  of  Foresters,  was  or- 
ganized July  28.  1904,  with  charter  members:  Harlow  Van  Patten,  E.  D. 
Smith,  Ed.  Ladd,  Qifford  Leilous,  C.  S.  Worden,  T.  Hoyt,  H.  Miller.  Dell 


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^32  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

Bell,  Bert  Miller;  Dell  Jacokes,  Jos.  Smitb,  Jno.  Evans,  Deo  Bigford,  Henry 
Chambers,  Jos.  Uhlman-  The  present  officers  are:  Chief  Ranger,  Charles 
Oliver;  Physician,  Dr.  J,  H.  Anderson ;.  Cor.  Sec.  J.  H.  O'Dell:  Fin,  Sec, 
Charles  Oliver. 

Union  Camp  No.  8589,  Modem  Woodmen  of  America,  Union  City, 
was  organized  August  2y.  1900,  with  charter  members:  G.  S.  Easton,  Geo. 
Merritt.  W.  H.  Barrett,  M.  J.  Rowley,  Geo.  H.  Bovee,  CTias.  Wright,  W.  J. 
Cox,  Stephen  Cnmmings,  C.  M.  Tal'bot,  M.  H.  Hands.  J.  F.  Hartford,  A. 
E.  Manwarren,  Geo.  Rayment,  Wm.  Short,  H.  J.  Barton,  Fred  Yanger.  Tlie 
present  officers:  Venerable  Coimsel,  W.  H.  Barrett;  Clerk,  Chas.  Stone; 
Directors,  H,  G.  Sweet,  M.  Dnimm,  Clark  McDonald,  Will  Wilder. 

Quincy  Lodge  No.  201,  Knights  of  Pythias,  was  organized  October 
28,  1897,  the  charter  members  being:  G.  D.  Babcock,  J.  C.  White.  C.  H, 
Young,  Clinton  Joseph,  G.  J.  Fillmore,  W.  C.  Haight,  E.  D.  Lodcerby,  C. 
H.  Halleck,  S.  S.  Clark,  Giarles  Leiving,  Qiarles  Morey,  G.  W.  Barker, 
Orrin  Vills,  F.  E.  Powers,  C.  W.  Owen.  Burlev  Shoemaker,  Charles  Step- 
per, S.  D.  Caldwell,  E.  M.  Hephner,  J.  C.  Joiner,  L.  L.  King,  H.  W.  Far- 
well,  A.  T.  Mallory,  C.  C.  Jones,  G.  F.  Trott,  C.  F.  Crouch,  A.  M.  Griffin. 
The  lodge  membership  is  now  one  hundred  and  twenty,  and  only  two  deaths 
have  occurred  since  organization.  In  1904  Castle  Hall  was  conipleted  on 
North  Main  street,  at  a  cost  of  four  tliousand  dollars,  a  two-storj-'  building, 
with  the  upper  floor  devoted  to  lodge  and  club  rooms.  The  present  officers 
are :  A.  L.  Massey,  Chancellor  Commander ;  Clifford  Bisliop,  Vice  Chan- 
cellor; S.  W.  Ford.  Prelate;  J.  N.  Salisbury,  Keeper  of  Records  and  Seals; 
Bert  Kinyon,  Master  of  Finance;  Ralph  Andrus,  Master  of  Exchequer; 
John  Burns,  Master-at-Arms ;  D.  W.  App  Master  of  Work;  John  Drake, 
Inner  Guard;  Will  Houghtaling,  Outer  Guard. 

Quincy  Lodge  Na  186,  Daughters  of  Rebekah,  was  organized  January 
6,  1892,  with  the  following  as  charter  members:  CretJa  Livingston,  Mary 
Belle  Dove,  Mrs.  H.  E.  Rathlxtne,  John  Livingston,  Elmer  Dove,  Frank 
White,  Thomas  Lennon,  T.  Rathbone.  Thqse  now  filling  official  positions 
are  Clara  Parkinson,  N.  G. ;  Henrietta  Herendeen,  V.  G. ;  Emiiy  Nichols. 
Secy. ;  Joseph  Stevens,  F.  Secy. ;  Anna  Bennett,  Treas. 

Rathbun  Lodge  No.  167,  I.  O.  O.  F.,  at  Quincy,  was  organized  August 
15,  1871.  The  secretary  was  unable  to  obtain  tiie  nariies  of  the  charter  mem- 
bers. The  present  officers  are :  Charles  H.  Chase,  N.  G. ;  Jay  Kinnebrook, 
V.  G. ;  J.  Stevens,  Secretary. 

Conrad  Hive  No.  428,  L.  O.  T,  M.,  of  Quincy.  was  organized  Novem- 
ber 13,  1893,  with  the  following  charter  members:  Martha  Lisk.  Mary 
Fay,  Malinda  Blackman,  Ida  Harmon.  May  Fay.  Carrie  Wright,  Caroline 
SilHck,  Kittie  Harmon,  Azalia  Hunt,  Laura  Drake,  Cornelia  Pope,  Rachel 
Milieus,  Martha  De  Woif,  Henrietta  Herendeen,  Sarah  Canel,  Luella  Rhodes, 
Hettie  Clizbe,  Gertie  Powers,  NelHe  Allen,  Mira  Houghtaling,  Rose  Pease, 
Flora  Foster,  IdaVan  Levvan,  Laura  Babcock,  Mary  Porter.  Malinda  Chase. 
At  the  present  time  the  membership  numbers  over  eighty,  and  the  following 
is  the  list  of  the  officers  for  the  present  term:     Commander,  Belle  Qumer; 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  233 

Past  Commander,  Lovonia  Boweman:  Lieutenant  Commander.  Nettie  Tliomp- 
son;  Record  Keeper,  Kate  Wiser;  Finance  Keq>er,  Mary  Campbell;  Chap- 
lain, Martha  De  Wold;  Mistress-at-Arms,  Irene  Ford;  Sergeant,  Minnie 
Roth;  Sentinel,  Nettie  Baker;  Picket,  Ella  White;  Pianist,  Amanda  Van 
Orthwick ;  Captain,  Emma  Knapp. 

Garland  Tent  No.  618,  K.  O.  T.  M.,  Sherwood,  was  organized  Feb- 
ruary 26.  1891.  Charter  members:  W.  B.  Chiesman,  A.  R.  Culver.  W.  S. 
Beman,  C.  E.  Swain.  J.  F.  Mclntyre,  W.  H.  Fonner,  C.  E.  Nelthorpe,  F.  B. 
M^iey.  C.  Beard,  S.  Bennett,  G.  O.  Hnntley.  W.  M.  Wrig^lesworth,  E.  A. 
Lewis,  A.  E.  Travis.  H.  Smith,  E.  B.  Hoiward.  Present  officersi:  Henry 
Runyan,  P.  C;  F.  Tillotson,  C;  C.  Beard.  L.  C:  L.  L.  Eddy,  R.  K.;  W.  B. 
Chiesman,  R.  K. ;  Henry  Runyan,  Qiaplain:  C.  E.  Nelthorpe,  Physician;  D. 
E,  Beard,  Sergeant;  Wm.  Carroll,  M.  of  A.;  Wm,  Mnllinger.  First  M.  of 
G. ;  A.  Gehring,  Second  M.  of  G. ;  Fred  Batherick,  Sentinel ;  Henry  Kidney, 
Picket.     Present  membership,  fifty-eight. 

Sherv\-ood  Forest  Chapter  No.  233,  Order  of  Eastern  Star,  Sherwood, 
organized  September  2,  1898.  Charter  members:  Alice  R.  Klose,  Anna 
Fonner,  Harriet  Swain,  Hester  Runyan.  Serro  Jones.  Mar}'  Swain,  Jennie 
Runyan,  Marian  Watkins,  Harriet  Jones.  Maggie  Leckner.  Grace  Wal- 
king. Belle  Chiesman.  L.  Maud  Wilcox,  Sarah  A.  Thorns,  Henry  Runyan, 
C.  B.  Wilcox,  Walter  Chiesman,  Edward  Watkins,  Reuben  Jones.  Chas.  E. 
Swain.  Present  officers:  Sena  Evert,  W.  M, ;  Chas,  Nelthorpe,  W.  P.; 
Maude  Wilcox,  A.  M. ;  Waive  Wright,  Sec. :  Alice  Klose,  Treas. :  I>ou 
French,  Conductress ;  Gertrude  Jones,  Asst.  Cond. ;  Carrie  Klose,  Adah ; 
Laura  Lamimian.  Ruth ;  Margretta  French,  Estber ;  Louisa  Nelthorpe, 
Martha;  La  Vase  Laird,  Electa:  Amy  Lovejoy.  Chaplain;  Abbie  Vander- 
lioof.  Warder;  Lucious  Lovejoy,  Sentinel;  Elizabeth  Swain,  Marshal;  1-Ois 
Kilboum,  Organist. 

Lown  Hive  No.  262,  L.  O.  T.  M.,  Sherwood,  was  organized  December 
10.  1891.  Tlie  charter  members  are:  Ellen  Disbro,  Sophia  Lewis,  I^na 
Fonner,  Abbie  Henry.  Hester  Runyan,  Phenie  Johnson,  Estella  Jones,  Edith 
Turner,  Lela  Pearson,  Rose  Beman,  Dora  Harrison.  Libbie  Nelson,  Lulu 
Wilcox,  Cora  Dufur,  Elda  Huntley,  Ella  Tillotson,  Rebecca  Bennett,  Mag- 
gie Crocker.  Helen  Travers,  Julia  Spencer.  Matie  Beach.  Ada  M.  Fish, 
Lavina  Nelthorpe,  Josie  Culver.  Addie  Beard.  Present  officers  are:  Com., 
Cora  Dufur;  P.  Com..  Addie  Beard:  F.  K.,  Josephine  Thornton:  R.  K,, 
Eliza  Swain;  Chap.,  Amy  Lovejoy:  Seargt.,  Elizabeth  Swain;  M.  at  A., 
Mary  Smith;  Sent.,  Addie  DuBois:  Picket,  Jennie  Ostorn, 

The  C.  O.  Loomis  Post  No.  2,  G.  A.  R..  was  the  second  Grand  Army 
post  to  be  estabhshed  in  Michigan,  Moreover,  it  is  now  the  oldest  in  con- 
tinuous existence,  owing  to  the  lapse  of  Post  No.  i,  which  was  the  first  Cold- 
water  post.  Loomis  Post  was  organized  January  22,  1876.  with  the  follow- 
ing charter  members:  Dan  W.  Sawyer,  B.  F.  Clark,  D.  C,  Myers,  W.  H. 
Thurber,  Thomas  Lennon,  C.  D.  Skinner,  E.  A.  Turner,  George  W.  Rath- 
bun.  F,  M.  Rustine,  J.  C.  Nichols.  William  Wilson,  A.  M.  Turner,  H.  H. 
Hunt  and   Hiram   Rnstine.     Present  membership:     Isaac   Bargarow.   Finly 


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234  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

D.  Burling-haiTii,  Jeramire  Becker,  Joseph  Barker,  E.  C.  Chace,  J.  S.  Cleve- 
land, O.  D.  Curtis,  Wm.  M.  Corey,  Wm.  Craps,  G.  W.  Dye,  M.  M.  Dicheii- 
son,  Ambrose  Davids,  Alford  Dodge,  Olny  Draper.  K.  B.  Edthrig^,  Dexter 
Edthrige,  Wm.  H.  Emons,  Wm.  H.  EMrid,  Ely  T.  Hoyt,  James  Haines, 
Leroy  Holkom,  Lewis  C.  Failor,  Levy  Fish,  John  C.  llles,  Andy  Janon 
(colored  gentleman),  Thomas  Lennon,  Charles  W,  Lake,  Edward  McNitt, 
Silvester  McNJtt,  John  McGinnes,  Henry  Nichols,  C.  V.  R.  Pond,  Thos. 
Ryan,  Frank  M.  Rustine,  George  N.  Runyon,  L.  D.  Reynolds,  Steven 
Rodgers,  George  Steward,  William  H,  Thurber,  Andrew  Turner,  A.  Tur- 
pening,  Harry  J.  Wood,  David  Wood,  Wm.  Wimer,  Sanford  Wood, 
J.  Q.  Mickle,  G.  Q.  Rice,  Chas.  Pbtter,  Albert  Wariner,  Wm.  G.  Whitney, 
John  Waggoner.  Tim  TaJlent,  C.  W.  Owen,  Sisney  Smith,  Alonzo  Fox, 
Wm.  Herrick,  Hiram  Wiser. 

Butterworth  Post  No.  109,  G.  A.  R.,  which  was  organized  at  Cold- 
water  March  9,  1883,  after  the  first  post  had  lapsed,  has  the  surviving 
membership  named  as  follows :  Geo.  S.  Allen,  R.  B.  Amsden,  J.  C.  An- 
drews, John  W.  Arnold,  Thos.  M.  Alexander,  Philander  Alden,  Daniel 
Bradley,  Aaron  Bagley,  Jeff  M.  Bums,  C.  H.  Brown,  D,  A.  Bolster,  Joseph 
Brandle,  A.  E.  Buck,  E.  J.  Brown,  Rensalaer  Brown,  H.  H.  Benson, 
Darius  Belknapp,  Charles  W.  Bennett,  Samuel  Bates,  W.  A.  Blye,  David 
Bender,  John  Button,  A.  B.  Cleveland,  Wm.  N.  Conover,  Geo.  W^.  Clement, 
Chas.  D.  OufF,  Edwin  Collar,  Patrick  Cavanaugh,  James  C.  Clark,  John 
M.  Crocker,  Feleg  O.  Carmen,  Otis  M.  Clement,  Edward  Casebeer,  L.  A. 
Dillingham,  Geo.  Dingman,  James  Doris,  Daniel  E.  Declute,  Alden  F. 
Drake,  L.  S,  Daniels,  John  C.  Dubendorf,  Leonard  Dean,  Geo.  H.  Eggles- 
ton,  Frank  Eaton,  Henry  Firth,  Henry  E.  Frederick,  J.  A.  Fetterly,  Steuben 
Filkins,  John  Fitzpatrici:,  David  Fox,  Thomas  W.  Fegles,  Harvey  Freeman, 
Wm.  W.  Fenno,  Solomon  Good,  Wm.  H.  Harris,  Lewis  L.  Hawley,  P.  W. 
Hilliar,  Andrew  J.  Haws,  Julius  Herriff,  David  S.  Harris,  Henry  kle,  Vi'm. 
S.  Joies,  Frank  Jones,  Jas.  E.  Jones,  Geo.  W.  Knapp,  Chas.  Keyes,  E.  E. 
Lewis,  Willet  F.  Lumbard,  Jas.  M.  Lind,  H.  A.  Lane,  David  R.  P.  Larow, 
Chas.  A.  Lee,  S.  M.  Lutes,  Geo.  F.  Lipps,  Jas.  McQueen,  Frank  D.  Newberry, 
O.  G.  Noyes,  Michael  NagJe,  Wm.  Newman,  L.  M.  Nye,  Jacob  Nodeli,  Geo. 
F.  Nivison,  Alfred  Milnes,  Samuel  Misenar,  Clark  Mosier,  I.  D.  Miner, 
Edgar  P.  Moses,  Allen  Morse,  L.  H.  Mowers,  Henry  Miller,  Pliilip  Pitcher, 
Richmond  F.  Parker,  David  Pitcher,  Andrew  Pender,  Byron  D.  Paddock, 
Lewis  E.  Pierce,  A.  J.  Potter,  John  N.  Parker.  Daniel  G.  Parker,  Geo. 
Phelps,  A.  J.  Parsons,  H.  O.  Purdy,  Thos.  S.  Osborn,  John  O'Mara,  Clark 
Sherman,  Ezra  Stahl,  Henry  Stahl,  Wm.  H.  Sanford,  Andrew  Sitter,  H.  C. 
Simons,  Hezekiah  Sweet,  T.  G.  Sheldon,  Wm.  Steward,  Edward  Stone, 
Wm.  J.  Smalley,  John  G.  Stepper,  Edgar  Sears,  Chas.  A.  Smith,  N.  A. 
Reynolds,  B.  K.  Robbins,  Thomas  W.  Rhodes,  Benj.  F.  Rolfe,  James  A. 
Rickard,  Harmon  Timerson,  Wm.  M.  Tyler,  Samviel  L  Treat,  Chas.  A. 
Tompkins,  Wm.  C.  Taylor,  Geo.  H.  Turner,  S.  M.  Teachout,  James  E. 
Tndtey,  C.  R.  Thompson,  David  H.  Thompson,  W.  Vangilder,  L.  M.  Wing, 
W.   B.  Warford,  Jed  Wilcox,  L.   C.   Waldren,   Thos.   C.   Whitelock,   Chas. 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  235 

\ViIson,  Geo.  W.  Whitehead,  David  W.  Weldy.  Samuel  M.  Williams,  Milan 
Wheeler,  Henry  G.  Wadsworth,  Gratton  H.  Wagoner. 

Kilhoum  Post  No.  361.  G.  A.  R.,  Sher\vood.  was  organized  August 
31.  1S86.  Charter  members:  Emoiy  Blossom.  S.  L.  Kiiboum,  Jno.  Stvid- 
le\',  H.  Runyan.  J.  W.  Ott,  T.  H.  Watkins,  Jno.  Banker.  J.  Henry.  Ed.  Nash, 
W.  T.  Davis,  Edw.  Tenney,  Chas.  Hall,  S.  Cathorn,  Chas.  Shelhart,  J.  M. 
Ijxke,  W.  C.  Thornton,  A.  J.  Snyder,  C.  Canfield.  Robt.  Kimber,  Henry 
Jones.  Nathaniel  Jones,  Bert  Hmve.  The  present  officers:  Commander, 
J.  M.  Locke;  S.  V.  Com.,  Julius  Henry;  J.  V.  Com.,  A.  J.  Snj'der,  Surgeon. 
Peter  Vanderhoof;  Chap.,  Chas.  Shelhart:  O.  D..  H.  Runyan;  Adj.,  H.  Run- 
yan; Q.  M..  L.  Zimmerman;  O.  G..  L.  P.  Lovejov;  S:  M.,  J.  H.  Watkins; 
Guard,  E.  W.  Watkins. 

Corbin  Post  No.  88.  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic.  Union  City,  was  or- 
ganized October  16,  1882.  Its  charter  members  were:  A.  E.  Ripley,  C. 
M.  Hall,  M.  F.  Buell.  D.  E.  Youngs,  D.  L.  Merrill.  D.  J.  Easton,  M.  A. 
Merrifield,  S.  D.  Bueli,  A.  J.  Ackley,  R.  M.  Simmons.  A.  H.  Wilder,  E. 
Briimfield,  B.  F.  Haymaker,  J.  C.  Bushong,  N.  P.  Olmsted,  D.  F^  Austin, 
L.  L.  Harsh,  G.  W.  Palmer.  J.  J.  Banford.  John  Van  Blarcom,  J.  H.  Hanima, 
E.  McDonald,  C.  A.  Zimmerman,  Geo.  Haymaker.  Tlie  present  officers  are: 
Commander.  Ira  B.  Buell:  S.  V.  Com.,  Henry  Seymour,  J.  V.  Com.,  Geo, 
Thayer;  Officer  Day,  J.  D.  Parks;  Quartermaster,  M.  F.  Buell;  Chaplain, 
A.  J.  Ackley;  Officer  Guard,  Jonathan  Olney;  Adjutant,  M.  E.  Blair;  Q.  M. 
S.,  R.  M.  Simmons. 

The  New  Century  Club  of  Quincy.  This  club  was  organized  in  1898, 
and  in  1900  was  federated  with  the  State  Federation  of  Women's  Clubs. 
The  constitution  limits  the  membership  toi  thirty  active  and  se\'en  associate 
members.  The  original  members  of  the  club  were  as  follows :  Mrs.  W,  J, 
Barnes,  Mrs.  I.  L.  Bishop,  Miss  Jennie  Bums,  Mrs.  C.  D.  Burwell,  Mrs. 
W.  D.  Campbell,  Mrs.  E,  J.  Clizbe,  Mrs.  W.  H.  Lockerby,  Mrs.  I.^iira 
Sweeney,  lliss  Maria  Warner— all  of  whom  are  still  active  members  of  the 
club.  The  other  charter  members  were;  Jessica  Hopkins,  Belle  Pratt, 
Mary  Y.  Marsh,  Eva  Felton,  P.  L.  Twadell,  Elsie  Mellen,  Belie  Dove.  M. 
L.  Woods,  Maude  Ackerson,  Lenna  Sweeney,  Lena  Anderson,  Hattie  Wil- 
liams, Mrs.  Mitterling,  Sarah  Dickerson,  F.  C.  Brickley.  Tlie  presait  active 
membership,  besides  the  charter  members  just  mentioned,  are  Mrs.  J.  M. 
Blackman,  Mrs.  Maud  Bames.  Miss  Barber.  Miss  Fox,  Miss  Frances  W. 
Hill,  Mrs.  C.  C.  Jones,  Miss  Mabel  Jones.  Miss  Ruby  Kinyon,  Mrs.  T.  S. 
Lampman. '  Mrs.  B.  C.  Mellen.  Mrs.  F.  McKinstry,  Mrs.  R.  D.  Rawson, 
Mrs.  M.  S.  Segur,  Mrs.  J.  R.  Smith.  Mrs.  S.  M.  Turner.  Miss  Todd,  Mrs.  G. 
\\'.  Woodworth,  Miss  Pierce,  Mrs.  F.  E.  Knapp,  Mrs.  Goldsbury,  Mrs.  Burr. 
The  officers  for  the  year  1905-06  were;  Mrs.  W.  H.  Lockerby,  President; 
Mrs,  Laura  Sweeney,  Vice  President;  Mrs.  J.  M.  Blackman,  Secretary; 
Mrs.  R.  D.  Rawson,  Treasurer.  The  ex-presidents  of  the  club  are  Miss  Jes- 
sica Hopkins,  Mrs.  M.  S.  Segur,  Mrs.  t.  L.  Bishop  and  Mrs.  E.  J.  Clizbe. 
The  fielegnte  to  the  state  federation  for  1906  is  Miss  Mabel  Jones,  with 
Mrs.  J.  M,  Blackman  as  alternate. 


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230  HISTORY  OF  BRyVNCH  COUNTY 

The  Cokimbian  Club  of  Qiiincy.  Tliis  literary  club  was  organized  in 
1902.  Its  active  membership  is  limited  to  twenty-five,  with  five  associate?. 
Tlie  active  members  at  this  writing  are:  Mrs.  Henry  Williams,  Mrs.  C,  C. 
Jones.  Mrs.  Henry  Nichols,  Mrs.  G.  J.  Fillmore,  Mrs,  Floyd  Newberry, 
Mrs.  Herbert  Joseph.  Mrs.  Yost,  Mrs.  George  Dnnphy,  Mrs.  A.  C.  I-eiving. 
Mrs.  Arza  Hoffman,  Miss  Lea  Benge.  Mrs.  J.  D.  Van  Ortlnwick,  Mrsi.  Frank 
McKinstry,  Mrs.  Greening,  Mrs.  J.  C.  Beimett,  Mrs.  W.  H.  Martin,  Mrs. 
Mary  Spaulding.  Mrs.  Will  Knapp,  Mrs.  S.  W.  Boynton,  Miss  Mazie  Field, 
Miss  Elva  Gage.  Mrs.  Harry  Paddock,  Miss  Millie  Barnes,  Miss  Buell,  Mrs.  - 
Fred  Finch.  The  associate  members  are  Mrs.  A.  A.  Squier,  Mrs.  F.  E. 
Knapp,  Mrs,  A.  L.  Bovven,  Mrs.  John  Babcock,  Mrs.  D.  W.  App.  The 
officers  for  IQ06-07  are:  Mrs.  Mary  Spanlding,  President:  Miss  Lea  Benge, 
Vice  President;  Miss  Buell,  Secretary;  Miss  Elva  Gage,  Assistant  Secretary. 

The  Nika  Club,  for  literary  and  social  purposes,  was  organized  in 
Quincy,  Febmary  22,  1898,  with  the  following'  charter  members:  Mrs. 
Joe  Condra,  Mrs.  Gertie  Powers,  Mrs.  Rilla  Greening,  Mrs.  Ruby  Ryan, 
Mrs.  Jessie  Hanna,  deceased  March  ig,  189&.  Mrs.  Lula  Ramsdeil,  Mrs. 
Lillian  Runyan,  Miss  Julia  Dayton.  Mrs.  Hattie  Williams.  Mrs.  Wer- 
ner, Mrs.  Liiuise  Haight,  Mrs.  Winnie  White,  Mrs.  Blanch  Turner,  Mrs. 
Nora  Burch,  Mrs.  Iva  Hemorth,  Mrs.  Rose  Wagner,  Mrs,  Benge,  Mrs. 
I..^na  Jones.  The  present  officers  of  the  Nika  Oub  are:  President,  Mrs. 
Kate  Wiser:  Vice  President,  Mrs.  M.  D.  Greening;  Secretary  and  Treas- 
urer, Mrs.  Felger;  Assistant  Secy,  and  Treas..  Mrs.  Nellie  Comstock.  T!ie 
members  axe:  Mrs.  Arza  Hoffman,  Mrs,  J.  C.  White,  Mrs.  W.  lies,  Mrs. 
C.  H.  Felger,  Mrs.  F.  E.  Powers,  Mrs.  C.  C.  Jones,  Mrs.  E.  A.  Runyan. 
Mrs.  L.  H.  Ryan,  Mrs.  J.  M.  Blackman,  Mrs.  Geo.  Burdick.  Mrs,  A.  W. 
Lawton,  Mrs.  F.  M.  McKinstry,  Mrs.  Bert  Joseph,  Mrs.  C.  F.  Crouch,  Mrs. 
F.  C.  Herworth,  Mrs.  H.  J.  Williams,  Mrs.  R.  D.  Wiser,  Mrs.  M.  D.  Green- 
ing. Mrs.  Geo.  Comstock,  Mrs.  Chas.  Burger,  Mrs.  E.  E.  Lytle,  Mrs.  H.  C. 
Rsmsdeli,  Mrs.  L.  O.  Burch,  Mrs.  B.  F.  Kinyon,  Mrs.  C.  D.  Burwell.  Mrs. 
Ward  Ailen,  Mrs.  E.  E.  Widner,  Mrs.  R.  D.  Rawson.  Mrs.  Max  Glazer, 
Mrs.  W.  C  Haight. 

In  1891-94  there  was  a  Chautauqua  circle  in  Bronson.  Mr.  Waldo  M. 
Morrison  was  president  of  the  circle,  and  Mrs.  Lou  R.  Whitaker  secretary. 
There  were  eight  members:  Mrs.  Delia  Teller.  Mrs.  Nellie  Rudd,  Mrs,  Gus- 
sie  Davis,  Miss  Sadie  Sanderson,  Miss  Mae  Moos,  Miss  Grace  Rose.  Miss 
Louise  Stevens.  Mrs.  Waldo  M.  Morrison,  Mrs.  Ij3u  Draper,  Miss  Nellie 
Fulkerson. 

The  Woman's  Club  of  Bronson  was  organized  in  1903.  and  in  the  fol- 
lowing year  was  federated  with  the  state  association.  The  officers  for 
1905-06  were:  Ex-President,  Ellen  C.  Card:  President.  M"elissa.  Rudd  Fisk; 
Vice  President.  Cora  B.  Scribner;  Secretary  and  Treasurer,  Lou  Bennett 
Whitaker:  Corresponding  Secretary.  Augusta  Van  Fleet  Davis.  Tlie  mem- 
bers: Maria  Taggart  Bushnell,  Ellen  C.  Card,  Melissa  Rudd  Fisk,  Nellie 
Brown  Powers,  .^daiine  Phillips  Selby,  Lucinda  Bowen,  Augusta  Van  Feet 
Davis,  Essie  R.  Hiirford,  Clara  Norton  Perrin,  Cora  B.  Scribner,  Lou  Ben- 


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HISTORY  OF   l^RANCH  COUNTY  237 

nett   Whitaker,    Gertrude   Baxter.    Alice   Park    Mowry,    Flora   Burr   Sliaff- 
master.     Jlonorary  member,  Grace  Van  Alstine  Taylor. 

TTie  Tuesday  Club  of  Union  City,  a  literary  and  social  organization 
among  the  ladies  of  tiie  village,  was  organized  in  1898.  with  the  following 
charter  members:  Mrs.  Chas.  H.  Lowell,  Mrs.  Arthur  Fenno,  Mrs.  Leon 
A.  Johnson,  Miss  Nannette  H.  Jeffrey,  Mrs.  E.  H.  Page.  Mrs.  Edgar  Dotv, 
Mrs.  H.  T.  Carpenter,  Mrs.  N.  E.  Tower.  Mrs.  Wm.  E.  Bell,  Mrs.  G.  K. 
Whiting,  Miss  N.  Sophia  Page.  Mrs.  Arthur  S.  Cornell.  Mrs.  Frank  C. 
Boise,  Dr.  Cora  B.  Cornel!,  Mrs.  Mildred  S.  Stanton.  Miss  Ellen  Crissv, 
Miss  Edna  J.  Peck,  Mrs.  E.  H.  Hurd,  Mrs.  J.  E.  Saxton,  Dr.  A.  Dorothy 
Payne.  The  present  officers:  President,  Mrs.  F.  C.  Boise;  Vice  President, 
Miss  Harriet  Young;  Secretary,  Miss  Carrie  Hurd;  Treasurer,  Mrs.  Claude 
Graham. 

COLDWATER    Y.    M.    C.    A. 

The  Young  Men's  Christian  .Association  of  Coldwatcr  lias  had  a  con- 
tinuous and  increasingly  prosperous  existence  of  more  than  twenty  years. 
The  articles  of  association  are  date<i  June  9,  1885,  and  were  signed  by  C.  J. 
Vanderhoof,  C.  H.  Macumber.  F.  I.  Sprague,  W.  C-  Bailey,  G.  W.  Collins, 
T.  A.  Hilton,  C.  S.  Vincent.  H.  P.  Woodward.  W.  S.  Mansell.  R.  E.  Clarke. 
The  first  officers  were  L.  D.  Fiske,  president;  C.  J.  Vanderhoof.  Vice  Presi- 
dent; C.  F.  Ruggles,  Secretary:  R.  E.  Clarke.  Treasurer;  W.  E.  Flynn, 
General  Secretary. 

Mr.  R.  E.  Clarke  and  Mr.  H.  P.  Woodward,  whose  names  appear 
among  the  organizers,  continued  as  active  uiembers  of  the  board  of  directors 
from  the  date  of  organization  until  the  summer  of  1906,  a  period  of  twenty- 
one  years. 

The  first  quarters  of  the  association  were  in  the  Old  Bank  building, 
Monroe  and  Chicago  streets.  In  April,  1892,  the  second  floor  of  the  White 
block  was  rented.  Tlie  Lewis  Art  collection  having  been  moved  from'  Cold- 
water  to  Ann  Arbor,  the  vacant  gallery  building  was  donated  by  Mrs.  Alma 
Lewis  Dennis,  widow  of  the  late  H.  C  Lewis,  for  the  use  of  the  associa- 
tion. Several  thousand  dollars  were  expended  in  converting  the  building 
to  its  new  purposes,  and  in  December,  1896.  the  association  moved  to  its 
iiemianent  quarters  at  the  comer  of  Hudson  and  Chicago  streets,  where 
the  building,  groimds  and  genera!  equipment  give  the  association  a  home 
that  compares  favorably  with  that  of  any  Y.  M.  C.  A.  in  southern  Michigan. 

Tlie  present  membership  is  about  two  hundred,  and  the  officers  last 
elected  are:  Frank  I.  Post,  President;  F.  B.  Reynolds,  Vice  President;  L. 
A.  Hutchins,  Recording  Secretary;  C.  M.  Perry,  Treasurer;  S.  Raymond 
Gould,  General  Secretary. 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 


CHAPTER  XXIX. 
THE  PIONEER  SOCIETY. 

"The  object  of  this  society  shall  be  the  collecting  and  preserving  of 
historical,  biographical  or  other  information  in  relation  to  Branch  County." 
This  is  the  purpose,  as  stated  in  Article  3  of  the  Constitution,  of  the  Pioneer 
Society  of  Branch  County,  which  was  founded  August  16,  1878.  Founded 
with  this  high  purpose,  and  with  the  possibilities  of  a  broad  and  beneficent 
activity  resulting  from  long  associations  and  the  common  experiences  of  pio- 
neer life,  it  is  to  be  regretted  that  this  society  has  not  had  a  continuous  and 
prosperous  career.  The  last  meeting  of  the  society  was  held  in  1901.  That 
there  is  a  Jiving  interest  in  all  matters  comprehended  in  the  language  of  the 
above  article,  and  that  this  interest  is  general  throughout  the  county,  not 
alone  among  the  oldest  citizens  but  also  among  the  present  generation,  the 
existence  of  this  history  is  ample  proof.  For  without  that  "  reverence  for  the 
past  and  a  desire  to  maintain  every  sort  of  connection  with  it,"  which  an 
English  observer  has  declared  to  be  a  great  and  growing  force  among  the 
educated  people  of  America,  the  publication  of  a  historical  work  of  these 
dimensions  could  not  have  been  undertaken.  But  as  yet  this  general  inter- 
est has  not  been  focused  and  converted  into  a  permanent  and  effective  force 
wielded  by  a  single  organization. 

With  these  observations  on  the  present  condition  of  the  pioneer  move- 
ment, the  history  of  the  Pioneer  Society  may  be  sketched  in  some  detail. 
The  meeting  for  organization  on  the  date  above  mentioned  was  hekl  in  the 
house  of  Harvey  Warner,  with  another  well  known  pioneer,  E.  G.  Fuller,  as 
chairman,  and  T.  C,  Etheridge  as  secretary.  The  first  set  of  officers  elected 
for  the  ensuing  year  were  as  follows : 

Harvey  Warner,  president;  Harvey  Haynes,  recording  secretary;  T.  C, 
Etheridge,  corresponding  secretary;  S.  M.  Treat,  treasurer;  Henry  Lock- 
wood,  Albert  Chandler  and  Mrs.  H.  Warner,  executive  committee. 

Vice  Presidents— A Igansee,  F.  D.  Ransom;  Batavia,  Martin  P.  Olds; 
Bethel.  Nelson  Card;  Bronson,  Wales  Adams;  Butler,  Milo  White;  Califor- 
nia, James  H.  Lawrence;  Coldwater  township,  Origen  F.  Bingham;  Cold- 
water  City,  J.  D.  W.  Fisk.  I.  P.  Alger,  Allen  Tibbits,  John  H.  Bennett; 
Gilead,  Samue!  Booth;  Girard,  James  B.  Tompkins;  Kinderhook,  George 
Tripp;  Matteson,  William  McCarty;  Noble,  Walter  W.  Smith;  Ovid,  Stew- 
art Davts ;  Quincy,  W.  P.  Arnold ;  Sherwood,  Isaac  D.  Beall ;  Union,  Hiram 
Doubleday. 

Besides  these  already  mentioned  there  were  Roland  Root  and  wife,  L. 


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dt  Cooi^lc 


Entrance  to  Ne^v  Cfimetery,   Coldwater 


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Hos:6db,>^50ogie 


HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  2!i0 

D.  Halsted  and  wife,  C.  H.  Williams  and  wife,  and  James  R.  Wilcox  and 
wife,  whose  names  appear  as  constitutional  members. 

It  is  worthy  of  note,  as  showing  how  the  advance  guard  of  life's  proces- 
sion is  being  constantly  cut  down  by  time,  that  only  two  or  three  of  these 
original  members  are  now  hving.  Perhaps  the  last  one  to  be  gathered  in  the 
fullness  of  time  was  L.  D.  Halsted,  who  passed  away  April  5,  1906. 

For  the  first  twelve  years  after  its  formation  the  society  was  flourishing, 
and  its  mid-winter  meetings  were  well  attended.  In  1884  a  new  constitution 
and  by-laws  were  adopted.  The  definition  of  what  constitutes  a  pioneer  un- 
derwent several  changes  during  the  history  of  the  society.  At  one  time  any- 
one who  had  resided  in  Michigan  and  Branch  county  for  thirty  years  was 
eligible  to  membership,  while  with  this  constitution  the  requirement  was  re- 
duced to  twenty-five  years  residence  in  the  state  and  residence  in  the  county 
at  time  of  being  received  into  the  society. 

Between  January  13,  1892,  and  the  month  of  December,  1896,  no  meet- 
ing is  recorded.  At  the  same  time  the  death  roll  was  increasing,  and  thence- 
forward hardly  a  month  passed  without  the  death  of  one  who  had  come  to 
the  county  as  a  pioneer.  Another  lapse  in  regular  meetings  occurred  be- 
tween March  17,  1897,  and  February  19,  1901.  and  in  May  of  the  same  year 
the  assembling  of  the  pioneers  at  the  home  of  Judge  David  N.  Green,  then 
president  of  the  society,  was  the  last  meeting  of  the  Pioneer  Society  of  Branch 
county. 

The  officers  elected  at  the  meeting  of  February  19,  1901,  and,  because 
their  successors  have  not  been  elected,  still  the  de  facto  officers  of  the  society, 
were:  President,  David  N.  Green  (since  deceased);  vice-president,  George 
W.  Van  Aken;  secretary,  Calvin  J.  Thorpe;  executive  committee,  Albert  A, 
Dorrance,  Anthony  R.  Brown  and  D.  W.  Benton. 


Pioneer  Record. 

[These  brief  biographical  records  of  pioneers  have  been  compiled  from  vari- 
ous available  sources  and  will  serve  to  supplement  the  preceding  his- 
torical chapters  and  the  biographical  sketches  that  follow,] 
Allen,  John  B.— Born  in  England,   March    13,   1S34;   came  to  Bethel, 

Branch  countv,  in  1842. 

Allen,  Gabriel— Born  June  28,   1839,  died  Feb.  26,   1904.     Brother  of 

foregoing.     Came  with  parents  to  Bethel  township. 

"Allen,  George  Henry— Born  in  Bethel  township,  April  7,   1844;  hvmg 

in  Coldwater. 

Aldrich,    William— Born   Wayne  county,   N.    Y.,    July   26,    181 1,   and 

died  in  Coldwater  Nov.   26,   1877,     Came  to  Girard  township  m   1832. 

Aldrich.  Abram   J-— Born  in  Girard  township,  Feb.  3,  1843;  living  in 

Coldwater.     At  one  time  proprietor  of  Coldwater  Republican. 

Alger,  Isaac  P.— Born  in  Lisbon.  N.  Y.,  Aug.  28,    1S20,  and  died  at 

Coldwater  April  18,  1904.     Came  to  Quincy  township  in  1833. 


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2i0  HISTORY  O'F  BRANCH  COUNTY 

Alger,  William — Born  in  Richland  township,  Vermont,  July,  1816,  died 
in  1893  in  Matteson  township.  Early  settler  in  Butler  township.  Brother 
of  Dr,  Isaac  P.  Alger. 

Amold,  William  P. — Born  Clarendon,  Vermont,  August  23,  1806,  and 
died   Came  to  Branch  county  in  1833. 

Allen,  John — Born  in  Sudbury.  Rutland  county,  Vt,  April  29,  1801 ; 
died  in  Coldwater  township,  Sept.  29,  1891.  Came  to  Coldwater  township 
in  1843- 

Alden,  Isaac — Born  in  Oswego  county,  N.  Y.,  January  8.  1813;  died 
in  Coldwater,  Feb.  7,  1892.     Came  to  Coldwater  township  in  1850. 

Alden,  Mrs.  Mary  A.  (wife  of  Isaac  Alden) — Born  in  Groton,  N.  Y., 

Nov.    n,   1819;  died    Daughter  of  David  and  Abigail 

Hopkins;  married  Mr.  Alden  March   18.   1845,  in  Jonesville,  Mich. 

Adams,  Wales — Born  Medway,  Mass,,  March  2,   1804;  died   

. ., Came  to  Branch  county,  in  September,   1830. 

Allen,  Alonzo  B.— Bom  in  Pittsford,  Vt.,  July  it,  1829;  living  in 
Coldwater  township.     Came  to  Branch  county  in  1843. 

Arnold,  Samuel^Born  in  Middletown,  Conn.,  Feb.  20,  1800;  died  in 
Gilead  township  September  30,  1878;  came  to  Kinderhook  township  in 
1836,  and  to  Giiead  in  1837. 

Arnold,  Mrs,  Catherine  S. — Born  March  20,  1805;  married  Samuel 
Arnold  in  1831. 

Ackerman,  John  D.-^Born  Cortland  county,  N.  Y.,  June,  i82t;  died 
at  Union  Citj',   

Andeison,  John — Born  in  Aberdeenshire.  Scotland:  died  Feb.  12,  1S52, 
in  Gilead  township.     Came  to  Gilead  township  in  1S37. 

Anderson.  James — Born  March   18,   1817.   in  At3erdeenshire,   Scotland: 

died    Came  to   Noble  township  in   1842,  to   Coldwater 

in  184S. 

Austin,  Charles  H. — Born  Perrysburg.  Ohio,  May  10,  1838;  living  in 
Batavia.     Came  to  Batavia  in   1847. 

Arnold,  John  W.— Born  in  Gilead  township  December  13,  1840:  living 
in  Chicago. 

Ashton,  James— Born  in  Yorkshire,  England,  September  2,  1821. 
Came  to  Quincy  township  in   1842. 

Ayres,  Ezra  J. — Bom  Oct.  17,  1S39,  in  Jay  township.  Essex  county, 
N.  Y.,  came  to  California  tow'nship  in  1871.     Physician. 

Abbott,  William  H. — Born  at  Dearborn,  Mich.,  July  8,  1826;  died  at 
Coldwater,   Nov.   16,   1894.     Came  to  Coldwater  in   1838. 

Bronson,  Jabe— Born  in  Connecticut,  and  died  in  Batavia  township. 
First  settler  in  Branch  county,  in  1828. 

Bahcock.  Christopher  G.— Born  in  Portage  county,  Ohio,  in  1S37;  living 
in  Bronson,    Came  to  Gilead  township  in  1861, 

Beech,  John  H, — Born  in  Orleans  county,  N.  Y.,  Sept.  24,  1819;  died 
October  17,  1878.    Came  to  Coldwater  in  1850;  a  physician. 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  241 

Babcock,  George  P. — Born  in  Camden,  Oneida  county,  N.  Y.,  January 
i8,  1815;  died  in  1874  in  Quincy.     Came  to  Quincy  township  in  1835. 

Elackman,  Dr.  Edson — Born  in  Morenci,  Michigan,  Nov.  22,  1S39;  liv- 
ing in  Quincy,  where  he  located  in  1876. 

Bailey,  Henry  C. — Born  in  Barre,  Orleans  county,  N.  Y.,  January  22, 
1833:  living  in  Coklwater.    Came  to  Branch  county  in  1852. 

Brown,  Alvarado — Bom  in  Herkimer  county,  N.  Y.,  January  15,  1809, 
Came  to  Branch  county  in  1840. 

Baldrige,  Niks— Born  in  Meadville.  Erie  county,  Penn.,  Nov.  6,  1839; 
died  July  25,  1879,  in  Ovid  township.     Came  to  Ovid  township  in  1847. 

Booth,  Samuel — Born  in  Onondaga  county,  N.  Y.,  Feb.  22,  1S18;  died 
in  Coklwater,  Feb.  13,  1892.     Came  to  Gilead  township  in  1832. 

Bartholomew,  Jehial — Born  in  Dryden,  N.  Y. ;  died  in  1875  in  Algan- 
see  township.     Came  to  Algansee  township  in  1844. 

Bingham,  Origen  S.- — ^Born  January  25,  1824,  at  Shelbume  Falls, 
Mass, :  died  in  1892.    Came  to  Branch  county  in  Oct.,  1831. 

Bingham,  Mrs.  Pliebe  (Worden) — Bom  June  4,  1S29,  at  Delhi,  N.  Y. 
Came  to  Batavia  in  November,  1S35. 

Bassett,  John — Born  March  20,  1793,  Martha's  Vineyard,  Mass.;  died 
April  27,  1874,  in  Batavia  township.     Came  to  Batavia  in  1835. 

Bassett,  Adam — Son  of  John.  Bom  in  Andes,  Delaware  Co.,  N.  Y., 
March  i,  1823;  died  March  30,  18S7,  in  Batavia  township.  Came  to  Batavia 
with  his  father. 

Blodget,  Uri — Bom  in  Ontario  county,  N.  Y.,  March  2,  182 1 ;  died  at 
Coklwater  in  1906.     Came  to  Coldwater  in  1849. 

Beal,  I.  D. — Born  in  Rutland  county,  Vt.,  May  21,  1812;  deceased. 
Came  to  Sherwood  township  in  1837. 

Buell,  Thomas  B. — Born  in  New  York  state  in  1815.  Came  to  Union 
City  in  1836. 

Bates,  Alfred  S.— Bom  in  township  of  Starkey,  Yates  county,  N.  Y., 
August  30,  1819;  died  in  Kinderhook,  Dec.  26,  1893.  Came  to  Kinderhook 
in  1848. 

Burton,  Parley  G.— Bom  July  26,  1S15,  in  Monroe  county,  N.  Y. 
Came  to  Girard  in  1847. 

Bidelman,  Horatio  N.— Born  in  Orleans  county,  N.  Y,,  July  4,  1836; 
living  in  Coldwater.     Came  to  Quincy  in  1855. 

Bagley,  Aaron — Born  in  Orange  county,  Vermont,  December  29,  1791. 
Settled  at  village  of  Branch  in  May,  1836. 

Bagley,  Mrs.  Elizabeth — Born  in  Lancaster  county,  Penn.,  March  22, 
1814,     Came  to  Batavia  township  in  June,  1834. 

Bennett,  Hon.  John  H.,  M.  D. — Born  at  Chenango,  Broome  county,  N. 
v..  December  6,  1826;  died  in  Batavia,  July  31,  1891.  Came  to  Qiiincy 
township  in  1839     Came  to  Coldwater  May  10,  1864. 

Burdick,  James  M. — Bom  in  Livingston  county,  N.  Y.  Came  to  Branch 
county  and  settled  in  Quincy  township  in  1836. 


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242  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

Barnhart,  Martin — Born  in  Wayne  county,  N.  Y.  Came  to  Girard 
township  in  January,  1831. 

Bennett.  Nathaniel— Born  near  Adrain,  Mich.,  in  1832;  died  in  1S86. 
Came  to  Bethe!  township  in  1847. 

Brinton,  Albert  N. — Bom  Salisbury,  Conn.,  Nov.  it,  1827;  living  in 
Coldwater.     Came  to  Qiiincy  in  May,  i860. 

Baggerly,  Reuben  A.— Born  in  Ontario  county,  N.  Y.,  June  17,  1819. 
Came  to  Quincy,  April  20,  1854. 

Bickford,  Daniel — Came  to  Algansee  township  in  1837. 

Bickford.  Jonathan  K. — Born  in  Canada;  died  in  Algansee  township, 
May,  1882.    Came  to  Algansee  about  1836. 

Bickford,  Stephen  T. — Born  at  Bellevue,  Ohio,  Dec.  16,  1823 ;  died  in 
Aigansee  May  31.   1906.     Came  to  Algansee  in  1834. 

Bickford,  Ira  P.— Born  in  Algansee  township  March  12,  1844. 

Brown,  Anthony  R. — Bom  in  New  York  state  in  1827.  Came  to  Branch 
coimty  in  1838. 

Benton,  Edward  W. — Bom  in  New  York  state  in  1824.  Came  to  Branch 
county  in  1846. 

Belote,  John  S. — Born  in  Albany,  N.  Y.,  Nov.  24,  1813;  died  in  Onincy 
August  6,   1888.     Came  to  Quincy  township  in  1835. 

Bostwick.  Ezra—Bom  in  Onondaga  county,  N.  Y.,  Feb.  27.  1826, 
Came  to  Union  township  in  1835. 

Brainard,  S,  E. — Born  in  Madison  county,  N.  Y.  Came  to  Algansee 
township  in  1836. 

Berry,  Enos  G. — Born  in  New  Hampshire,  Sept,  5,  1814;  died  in  Jan- 
uary, 1877.     Came  to  Quincy  in  1835.     (See  index.) 

Brown.  Asahe! — Born  in  Stafford,  Monmouth  county,  N.  J.,  April  a, 
1803;  died  in  Algansee  township,  June  8,  1874.     Came  to  Algansee  in  1836. 

Burbank,  Dwight  L,— Bom  in  Suffield,  Conn.,  March  8,  1829.  Came 
to  Butler  township  in  1850, 

Eushnell,  Samuel  S. — Bom  July  21,  1799,  in  Vennont;  died  Julv  21 
1873.     Came  to  Noble  township  in  1S36. 

Bushnell,  Ephraim  B. — Bom  in  Monroe  county,  N.  Y.,  October  12 
1825,     Came  to  Noble  township  with  father  in  1838. 

Bowers,  Charles  E.— Bora  March  28,  1826 :  settled  in  Butler  town- 
ship in  1847. 

Bennett,  James  K. — Bom  in  Vermont  in  1809,  Came  to  Matteson  town- 
ship September  ig,   1838. 

Bennett,  Christopher  Columbus — Born  in  Hopewell,  Ontario  county 
N.  Y.,  Sept.  3,  1830;  living  in  Matteson  township.  Came  with  parents  to 
Matteson  in  1838. 

Ball,  Thaddeus — Born  in  Oneida  county,  N.  Y.,  Oct.  29,  1813;  died  in 
Quincy  township  Oct.  14,  1897.     Came  to  Quincy  in  1840. 

Bennett,  Hiram  H. — Born  in  Chemung  county,  N.  Y.,  Aug,  10  181  e  ■ 
died  in  Butler  township  in  1897.     Came  to  Butler  in  1845,' 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  243 

Bingham,   Seymour  L.— Born  in    1810;   died   in   California  state,  June 

25,  1894.     Came  to  Coldwater  in  1831. 

Ballon,  John  and  Jemima,  his  wife— Came  into  Matteson  township 
about  1&40;  neither  now  hving. 

Bowers,  John — Ninety  years  of  age  in  igo6;  lives  in  Batavia  township 
with  his  son. 

Bachelder.   Nathaniel — Came  into  Branch  county  in   1846. 

Bachelder,  Mrs.  Julia  Etta  {Ferguson}— Bom  in  Chatham,  N.  Y.,  Oct. 

26.  1819;  died  in  Orange,  Cal.,  July  5,   1906.     Came  with  her  husband  to 
Branch  county  in  1846. 

Earnhart,  Mahlon  Budd— Came  into  Union  township  in  1834. 

Crippen,  Phllo  H.— Born  in  Penfield,  Monroe  county,  N.  Y.,  March  15, 
1809.     Came  to  Coldwater  in  1835. 

Culp,  Nicholas — Born  near  Gettysburg,  Penn. ;  died  in  September,  1873, 
in  Coldwater.     Came  to  Coldwater  township  in  1844, 

Culp,  John  W. — Bom  in  Newfane,  Niagara  county,  N.  Y.,  May  8.  1S32  ; 
living  in  Coldwater.     Came  to  Branch  county  in  1S39. 

Culver,  Eli — Born  in  Hector,  Tompkins  county,  N.  Y.,  Feb.  4,  1816. 
Came  to  Algansee  township  in  1839. 

Crater,  Andrew — Born  in  Hunterdon  county,  N.  J.,  June  28,  1813. 
Came  to  Algansee  township  in  spring  of  1837. 

Card,  Silas  N. — Born  in  Binghampton  county,  Vt.,  June  25.  1812;  died 
June  19,  1897.     Came  to  Branch  county  in  1836. 

Clizbe,  James— Born  in  Steuben  county,  N.  Y.,  Feb.  8,  1813;  died  in 
Quincy  March  24,  1895.  Came  to  Quincy  township  in  1835.  Planted  many 
of  the  shade  trees  on  streets  of  Quincy  village, 

Coddington,  Chester  S,,  Reuben  and  Luther — ^AU  came  from  Ithaca, 
N.  Y.,  to  Sherwood  township. 

Comwell.  Charles  Titus — Came  to  Coldwater  in  1849, 

Crawford,  Moses— Born  in  Governeur,  St.  Lawrence  county,  N.  Y., 
Oct.  25,   1828;  stili  living;  came  to  Bronson  April  20,   1848. 

Clark,  Jabez— Came  to  Bronson  in  Dec.  1836. 

Clark,  Leonard  D. — Son  of  Jabez  Clark,  born  in  Norwalk,  O. ;  came 
with  parents  to  Bronson  in  1S36;  died  in  May,  1905. 

Clark,  Milo — Second  son  of  Jabez;  bom  Nov.  14,  18^1;  died  Jan.  6, 
1885;  came  with  parents  to  Bronson  in  1836. 

Crawford,  Amira  Jane  (Clark) — Born  in  Norwalk,  O.,  June  15,  1835; 
came  with  parents,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Jabez  Clark,  to  Bronson  in  Dec,  1836; 
died  April  i,  1904. 

Canfield,  Numan — Born  in  New  York  April  11,  1800.  Came  to  Bethel 
township  in  1844. 

Canfield,  Chester  Numan — Born  in  New  York;  living  in  Bethel.  Came 
to  Bethel  with  father  in  1844. 

Chandler,  Robert  G.— Bom  in  Detroit,  Dec.  21,  1838;  living  in  Cold- 
water.     Came  to  Coldwater  in  1845. 


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244  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

Cheney,  Alfred — Born  in  Nasby,  Northamptonshire,  England,  July  5, 
1S39;  living  in  Kinderhook.     Came  to  Branch  county  in  1851. 

Clark,  Israel  W.— Bom  in  Connecticut  Farms,  New  Jersey,  Sept.  29, 
1803.     Came  to  Union  City  in  1838. 

Clark,  Timothy — Born  in  Broadalbin,  N.  Y.,  March  30,  1819.  Came 
to  Coldwater  in  1848,  and  ah  early  settler  of  Kinderhook. 

CJarke,  Edwin  R. — Bom  in  Byron,  N.  Y,,  March  22,  1828.  Came  to 
Coldwater  in  1850.     Donor  of  Clarke  Library  building  in  Coldwater. 

Cofifman,  Christopher— Born  in  Lancaster  county,  Penn.,  October,  1805; 
deceased.     Came  to  Branch  county  in  1852. 

Ccffman,  Lancaster — Bom  March  17,  1831,  in  Mahoning  county,  Ohio. 
Came  to  Ovid  township  in  1853. 

Compton,  William  H. — Eom  in  Gasport,  Niagara  county,  N.  Y.,  in 
1841 ;  died  in  1904.     Came  to  Bronson  with  parents  in  1845. 

Cornell,  Daniel  S, — Born  in  Niagara  county,  N.  Y.,  May  20,  1815; 
died  in  Girard  Oct.  15,  1889.     Came  to  Girard  in  1836. 

Cornell,  Job  K. — Born  in  New  York;  died  Aug.  3,  1876,  in  Union  town- 
ship.    Came  to  Union  township  in  spring  of  1835. 

Cornell,  Chauncey  J. — Born  in  Milan,  Ohio,  August  21,  1833;  living  in 
Coldwater.     Came  with  parents  to  Union  township  in  1S35. 

Corson,  John — Born  in  Oneida  county,  N,  Y. ;  died  in  1855  in  Matte- 
son  township.     Came  to  Matteson  in  1836. 

Corson,  Lafferd  W. — Born  in  Hopewell  township,  Ontario  county,  N. 
Y,,  April  23,  1822.     Came  with  parents  to  Matteson  in  1836. 

Cory,  Israel — Bom  in  Morris  coimty,  N.  J.,  May  6,  1814;  living  in 
Coldwater.     Came  to  Branch  county  in  1865. 

Crippen,  Bradley — Born  in  Herkimer  county,  N.  Y.,  Sept.  25,  1783; 
died  in  1855  in  Coldwater.     Came  to  Coldwater  township  in  1835. 

Chandler,  Albert — Bom  in  Sempronius,  N.  Y,,  Sept.  23,  18 14;  died  in 
1905  in  Coldwater.     Came  to  Coldwater  in  1841. 

Crippen,  L.  D. — Born  in  Fairfield,  N.  Y.,  Aug.  29,  1806;  died  April 
20,  1864.     Came  to  Coldwater  in  June,  1835. 

Crippen,  Mrs.  Ruth  (Haynes) — Born  in  Ulster  county,  N.  Y.,  July 
31,  1809;  died  in  Coldwater,  May  15,  1890.  Came  to  Coldwater  in  June 
1835- 

Culver,  A.  C. — Bom  in  Wayne  county,  N.  Y.,  Aug.  29,  1823.  Came  to 
Quincy  in  Nov.,  1847. 

Clizbe,  Dr.  Stephen  H. — Born  in  Girard  township,  January  24,  i84i;- 
living  in  Coldwater.     (See  index.) 

Chauncey,  Dr.  Moses  E. — Born  in  Saratoga  county,  N.  Y.,  Nov.  ic 
1809;  died  May  7,  1884.     Came  to  Girard  village  in  1843. 

Croy,  John— Came  to  Gilead  early  in  spring  of  183 1;  moved  in  1838 
to  Steuben  county,  Ind.;  died  in  Iowa  in  1875.  Firs,t  settler  of  Gilead 
township, 

Craig,  Samuel— Born  in  County  Armagh,  Ireland,  February  22  1  ync  • 
died  March  2,   1847.     Came  to  Girard  March  28,  1831.  '       ^' 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  245 

Craig,  Eliza — Born  in  Ireland  Mav  25,  1795;  died  in  Girard  on  Dec. 
22,  1878. 

Craig,  Samuel— Born  Sept,  4,  1831 ;  died  January  2,  1856.  First  white 
child  born  in  Girard  township. 

Chase,  William— Born  in  Otsego  county,  N.  Y.,  Nov,  12,  1815.  Came 
to  Kinderhook  in  1841. 

Case,  Almeron  W. — Born  in  Livingston  county.  N.  Y,,  Feb.  6,  1808; 
died  in  Kinderhook  township  in  November,  1877.  Came  to  Kinderhook  in 
1837- 

Chase.  Chauncey — Born  in  Monroe  county,  N.  Y.,  September  19,  1828. 
Came  to  Noble  township  in  1846. 

Calkins,  Moses  V. — Born  in  Danby,  Vt,  May  31,  1814.  Came  to  But- 
ler township  in  1852 ;  moved  to  Coldwater  in  1874, 

Calkin,  Barzilha  H. — Born  in  Newburg,  Ohio,  March  20,  1840:  died  in 
CoJdwater,  in  1906,     Came  with  father  to  Butler  township  in  1848. 

Cline,  Ephraim — Born  in  Binghamton,  N,  Y.,  Nov.  12,  1812;  died  in 
Matteson  township  in  1874.     Came  to  Matteson  townsliip  about  1835. 

Denison,  Samuel  M. — Born  in  Livonia.  N.  Y,,  March  20,  1S14;  died 
in  Coidwater  Nov.  20,  1894.     Came  to  Coldwater  in  1838. 

Doubleday,  Hiram — Bom  in  Washington  county,  N,  Y.,  Feb.  20,  1802; 
deceased.     Came  to  Sherwood  township  in  1836. 

Dougherty,  Thomas — Born  in  Washington  county,  N.  Y.,  February, 
1800;  deceased  January  15,  1888.     Came  to  Coldwater  Sept.  10,  1835. 

Davis,  David  H.— Born  in  Chautauqua  county,  N.  Y.,  July  27,  1817; 
died  March  26,  1902.  Came  to  Coldwater  in  1856  to  take  charge  of  public 
schools, 

Davis,  Ichabod — ^Came  to  Ovid  township  in  1836;  died  there  in  Septem- 
ber, 1849. 

Davis,  Stuart — Born  Feb,  14,  1808, 'in  Steuben,  Oneida  coimty,  N.  Y. ; 
deceased  September  4,  1881.     Came  to  Ovid  township  in  1836. 

Davis,  Emery — Born  in  Dover,  Dutchess  county,  N,  Y.,  June  6,  1817. 
Came  to  Ovid  township  in  1854. 

Dunks,  Daniel  S. — Born  January  21,  1810,  in  Fast  Bloomfield,  Ontario 
coimty,  N.  Y. :  died  in  Sherwood  township,  April  21,  1877.  Came  to  Union 
township  in  1838. 

Dickerson,  Mrs.  Emma  F, — Born  in  Ruggles,  Ashland  county,  Ohio, 
Sq}t.  16,  1847;  died  May  22,  iyo6.  Came  with  parents  to  Quincy  town- 
ship in  1 85 1. 

Doerr,  Jacob — Born  in  Gennany,  May  17.  1824;  died  June  6,  igo6. 
Came  to  Gilead  township  in  1849. 

Davis,  Oris — Born  in  Oneida  county,  N.  Y.,  Nov.  27,  1812;  died  in 
Coldwater  township  April  10,  1894.     Came  to  Branch  county  in  1836, 

Dennis,  Mrs.  David  E.  (Aiden) — Born  in  New  York,  June  5,  1826; 
died  in  Coldwater  May  8.  1895,  Came  to  Coldwater  with  father,  Hiram 
Alden,  in  September.  1834. 


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2^6  HISTORY  O'F  BRANCH  COUNTY 

Dunks,  Mrs.  Efmira — Nearly  ninety  years  old,  1906;  has  lived  on  a 
farm  near  Union  City  seventy  years. 

Davis,  Ezekiei— Born  in  Holland,  N.  Y.,  July  12.  1827.  Came  to  Bron- 
son  in  1843  3nd  txjught  a  farm  in  Nolile  township:  returned  to  New  York 
in  1845  '■  came  back  to  Branson  in  1865,  where  he  is  still  living;. 

Ewers.  Dr.  H.  F, — Born  in  Onondaga  county,  N.  Y.,  Feb.  24,  1830: 
deceased.     Came  to  Union  City  in  1854. 

Ent,  Silas — Born  in  Essex  county,  N.  J.,  Nov.  20.  1820.  Came  to 
Kinderhook  in  1842. 

Easton,  David  J. — Born  in  Castile,  Wyoming  county,  N.  Y.,  June  5, 
1842.     Came  with  parents  to  Algansee  township  in  1846. 

Edwards,  Thomas — Bom  in  Schoharie  county,  N.  Y.,  January  22,  1813. 
Came  to  Butler  township  in  1840. 

Ellis,  Willard  T.— Born  in  Geneseo,  Livingston  county,  N.  Y.,  August 
16,   1830.     Came  to  California  township  in  1844. 

Ensley,  Jacob— Bom  in  Lenawee  county,  Mich.,  May  22,  1835.  Came 
to  Batavia  township  in  1835. 

Fisk,  Abram  C, — Born  in  Monroe  county,  N.  Y.,  Feb.  19,  1815;  de- 
ceased at  Coldwater  Sept.  27,  1897.     Came  to  Coldwater  Sept.  7.  1835, 

Fetterby,  Nathan — Born  June,  1827,  in  Herkimer  county,  N.  Y.  Came 
to  Coldwater  in  1843. 

Faust,  Daniel — Born  in  Columbia  county,  Penn.,  June  27,  1819.  Came 
to  Noble  township  in  1836. 

Fisk,  James — Born  in  New  Hampshire  in  1787;  died  in  Coldwater  town- 
ship August  12,  187a     Came  to  Coldwater  township  in  1835. 

Fisk,  Joseph  D.  W.— Born  in  Penfield,  Monroe  county,  N.  Y.,  Sept.  24, 
1829;  deceased  at  Coldwater  Nov.  30,  1893.  Came  to  Branch  county  with 
parents  in  1835. 

Ford.  Daniel  R. — Born  in  Rutland  county,  Vermont,  Dec.  16,  1814. 
Came  to  Butler  township  in  183(1. 

Fonda,  Charles  Ira — Born  in  Rushville  township,  Yates  county,  N.  Y., 
Feb.  12,  1831 ;  living  in  Coldwater.  Came  to  Batavia  township  with  parents, 
June  13,  183.7. 

Ferguson,  Benjamin  Roberts — Born  July  12,  1818,  at  Ryders  Mills, 
Chatham,  Columbia  Co.,  N.  Y.  Came  to  Ovid  township  in  1846;  stiii  living 
in  Coldwater. 

Ferguson,  Juliaett  ( Bachelder )  —Sister  of  foregoing ;  born  Oct.  26, 
1819,  at  same  place  as  her  brother;  came  with  her  husband,  Nathaniel  Bach- 
ekier,  to  Ovid  township  in  1846;  died  in  Orange,  California,  July  5,  1906. 

Ferguson,  Dr.  George^Brother  of  preceding,  bora  at  same  place,  Feb. 
I,  1827;  carne  to  Ovid  township  in  1854. 

Ferguson,  Stephen— Brother  of  preceding.  Iwrn  at  same  place,  July  22, 
1832:  came  to  Ovid  township  in  1854  where  he  is  still  living. 

Fonda,  David— Came  from  Rushville,  Yates  Co.,  N.  Y,,  with  his  fam- 
ily to  Batavia  township,  June  13,  1837. 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  247 

Fisk,  James  Edwin— Came  into  Matteson  township  about  1S35. 

Gilbert,  William  S.— Born  in  Warren,  Vt.,  Nov.  23,  1809;  deceased  in 
Coldwater  Sept.  i,  1890.    Came  to  Coklwater  Sept.  11,  1836. 

Gallup.  F.  T. — JJorn  in  Canada,  March  ii,  1823;  came  to  Aigansee 
township  in  1853. 

Green,  David — Born  in  Qiieenstown,  N.  Y..  Jan.  5.  1802;  died  in  June, 
1884.     Came  to  Gilead  township  in  1841. 

Green.  R  C.  S.— Born  in  Tyre,  Seneca  connty,  N.Y.,  Sept.  16.  1825; 
died  in  Gilead  Aug.  10,  1897.  Came  to  Gilead  township  with  parents  in 
1841. 

Green.  David  Nathaniel — Born  in  Tyre  township.  Seneca  county.  N.  Y., 
Sept.  9,  1823;  died  Sept.  15,  1902;  came  with  his  father  to  Gilead  in  1841. 

Gardner,  Hiram — Born  in  Burlington,  Otsego  county,  N.  Y.,  Dec.  12, 
1805.     Came  to  Matteson  township  in  1836. 

Gardner,  Amos — Eom  in  Otsego  county,  N.  Y.,  March  18,  1833;  liv- 
ing in  Matteson  township.     Came  to  Matteson  in  1836. 

Gardner,  Elisha  T.— Born  in  Washington  county,  N.  Y.,  Nov.  7,  1814; 
died  June  7.  187S.     Came  to  Noble  township  in  1S54, 

Gwin,  Jabin  R.— Born  in  Richland  county,  Ohio,  Jan.  17,  1816.  Came 
to  Sherwood  township  in  1851. 

George,  Heni7— Born  in  township  of  Remsen.  Oneida  county,  N.  Y., 
Oct.  26,  1809;  died  April  14,  i860,  in  Ovid  township.  Came  to  Ovid  in 
1838. 

George,  Henry  B.— Born  in  Lenawee  county,  Mich.,  Oct.  9,  1838;  liv- 
ing in  Coldwater.     Came  to  Ovid  with  parents  in  1838. 

Gibbs.  Luman — Born  in  Scotland  in  1791:  died  in  1848.  Came  to  Kin- 
derhook  township  in  1842, 

Gibbs,  Luman  B. — Bom  in  Pulaski,  Jackson  county,  Mich,,  April  g, 
1840.     Came  to  Kinderhook  in  1842. 

Gordinier,  William  H. — Born  in  New  York  state  in  1810;  died  in 
Aigansee  township  February  13,  1892.     Came  to  California  township  in  1837. 

Gray,  Darwin  L. — Born  in  Franklin  county,  Mass. :  died  in  Aigansee 
May  I,  1897.     Came  to  Branch  county  in  1836. 

Giltner,  John  F.— Born  in  Leliigh  county,  Penn.,  Aug.  13,  1834.  Came 
to  Sherwood  township  in  1836. 

Gilbert,  John  T. — Bom  in  Mansfield,  Conn.,  March  19,  1806;  died  at 
Coldwater,  March  20,  1891.     Came  to  Coldwater  in  i860. 

Golden,  William — Born  in  township  of  Wiiton,  Saratoga  county,  N.  Y.. 
in  1S04;  died  June,   18S3,  in  Quincy  township.     Came  to  Quincy  in  1849. 

Golden,  Samuel  M. — Born  in  Huron  county,  Ohio,  Jan.  18,  1841. 
Came  to  Quincy  with  father  in  1849. 

Gorbai,  James — Bom  in  Suffolk,  England,  Jan.  3,  1815.  Came  to  Girard 
township  in  1836. 

Goodwin,  Seth— Bom  in  New  York  state,  in  1796;  died  in  Matteson 
township  Oct,  12,  1859.     Came  lo  Matteson  about  1836, 


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248  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

Go<xlwin,  Charles  H.—Born  in  Matteson  township  April  ii,  1854. 

Graliam,  L.  L. — Bom  in  St.  Joseph,  Mich.,  in  1838,  Came  to  Gilead 
township  in  1843. 

Green,  Alexander  R.^ — -Born  in  Ellicott,  N,  Y.,  in  1835 ;  living-  in  Gilead 
township.     Came  to  Giiead  with  parents  in  1841. 

Green,  James  H. — Born  in  Mercer  county,  Penn.,  Feb.  14,  1813;  died 
Feb.  6,  1884,  in  Bronson  township.     Came  to  Bronson  in  1843. 

Greenwood,  Richard — ^Bom  near  Rochdale  at  Plnmpton,  Lancashire, 
England,  Dec.  18.  1809;  died  in  Coldwater,  April  i,  1S77.  Came  to  Cold- 
water  about  1S42. 

Grove,  Archibald  R. — Born  in  Batavia  township,  March  17,  1S39. 

Goodman,  Cleophas  T. — Born  in  New  York  state  Aug.  21,  1815;  died 
in  Aigansee,  Jan.  29.,  1895.     Came  to  Branch  county  in  1837, 

Gordinier.  Jacob — Came  from  Herkimer  county,  N.  Y.,  in  No\'einber. 
1841,  to  Giiead  township.     He  is  still  living  in  Bronson. 

Green,  Silas  Seelev — Born  Jan.  21,  1804;  came  into  Bethel  township  in 
1835- 

Haynes,  Harvey — Born  in  Ulster  county,  N.  Y..  Jan.  24,  1817.  Came 
in  1836  to  Cokiwater  township  with  father,  James  Haynes. 

Holmes,  Jonathan— Born  in  Peterborough,  N,  H.,  June  8,  1807.  Came 
to  Bronson  fownship  in  1836. 

Hawks,  Joseph  S. — Born  in  Otsego  county,  N.  Y..  April  19,  1814:  died 
in  Kinderhook,  Oct.  5,  1874.     Came  to  Kinderhook  about  1837. 

Hadley,  Hiram  H. — Born  in  Addison,  Vt.,  June  14,  1810.  Came  to 
Batavia  township  Nov.  20,  1837. 

Harmon,  William  P. — Bom  in  Ontario  county,  N.  Y.,  Sept.  i,  i8'24; 
died  Feb.  4,  1892,  in.Quincy  township.     Came  to  Quincy  in  1855. 

Hail,  Thomas — Born  in  Washington  county,  N.  Y,,  Jan,  12,  1814. 
Came  to  California  township  in  1844. 

Haviland.  John  B.— Born  in  Danville,  Vt.,  Oct.  28,  1S16.  Came  to 
Sherwood  township  in  1836. 

Hiesrodt,  Edwin — Born  in  Orleans  county,  N.  Y.,  Oct.  30,  1821.  Came 
to  Ovid  township  in  1844. 

Holmes,  Cicero  J. — Born  in  Bronson  township,  Nov.  13,  1844. 

Hubbard,  Horatio  N, — Bom  in  Chenango  county,  N.  Y. ;  died  in  Ba- 
tavia township,  June  i,  1882.     Came  to  Batavia  in  July,  1838. 

Huyck,  Henry  E. — Born  in  Saratoga  county,  N.  Y.,  March  18,  1818. 
Came  to  Kinderhook  township  in  1844. 

Heiiry,  Warren— Born  July  6,  1819;  came  into  Sherwood  township  in 
1851,  where  he  is  still  living. 

Halsted,  Lorenzo  Dow — Born  in  Tompkins  county,  N.  Y.,  July  20, 
1820;  died  in  Coldwater,  April  5,  1906.    Came  to  Coldwater  Sept.  10,  1836. 

Jones,  John  H,— Born  in  Hopewell,  N.  Y..  April  27,  1828:  died  in 
Quincy.  March  19.  1895.     Came  to  Quincy  township  about  1835. 


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HISTORY  OF'  BRANCH  COUNTY  249 

Joseph,  Lawrence — Born  in  Tompkins  county,  N.  Y.,  April  27,  1825 ; 
came  to  Quincy  township  in  1S51. 

Joseph,  Lncas — Born  in  Northampton  county,  Penn.,  Oct.  14,  1817. 
Came  to  Quincy  township  in  March,  1839. 

Joseph,  William — Born  in  Tompkins  county,  N.  Y.,  June  26,  1828;  died 
at  Quincy,  April  30,  1880.     Came  to  Quincy  ahout  1850. 

Jacobs,  Lysander — Bom  in  Chautauqua  township,  Chautauqua  county. 
N.  Y.,  J^n.  28,  1825;  married  Miss  Amelia  Hull  in  1853,  and  came  to  Union, 
township  in  that  year;  died  Jime  27,  T906. 

Jones,  Loring  Grant — Born  in  Lester,  Livingston  county,  N.  Y.,  Sept. 
7,  1828;  came  to  Bronson  in  1836;  still  living  there. 

Jones.  Josq)h  Thompson — Born  Sept.  7,  1822,  in  Monroe  county,  N.  Y. : 
married  Miss  Sally  Briggs  April  2,  1845 ;  came  to  Quincy  township,  where 
he  is  stiil  living,  May  2,  1S46. 

Keagle,  Thomas  H. — Bom  near  Plymouth,  F.ngland,  Feb.  3,  1836. 
Came  with  parents  to  Quincy  tow^nship  in  1843. 

Kellsy,  Ira — Born  in  Wyoming  county,  N.  Y.,  Nov.  7,  1823.  Came  to 
Ovid  township  in  1848. 

Kerns,  Levi— Bom  in  Mahoning  county,  O,,  Feb,  17,  1824:  died  in 
Ovid  township  Feb.   15,  1888.     Came  to  Branch  county  in  1852. 

Kelly,  James — Came  from  Marion  Co.,  O.,  in  1833  into  Gilead  town- 
ship where  he  lived  three  years;  died  in  Steuben  Co.,  Ind.,  about  1870. 

Kennedy,  Charles  Decatur — Bom  in  Cumberland  Co.,  Penn.,  Feb.  19, 
1834;  still  living  in  Butler  township.  Came  into  Butler  with  his  father, 
George  Kennedy,  in  1849. 

Kerns,  Levi — Bom  Mationing  Co.,  O.,  Feb.  17,  1824:  died  Feb.  15, 
1888,  in  Ovid  township;  came  to  Branch  county  in  1852. 

Kellsy,  Ira — Born  in  Wyoming  Co.,  N.  Y,.  Nov.  7,  1823.  Came  to 
Branch  county  in  1848. 

Knowlton,  Ephraim  A. — Bom  in  Essex  county,  Mass.,  Dec.  25,  1813; 
died  in  Coldwater  March  14,  1893.  Came  to  Coldwater  in  1856  and  estab- 
lished planing  mill  and  sash  factory, 

Keeslar,  Joseph — Bom  in  Madison  county,  N.  Y,  April  6,  1825.  Came 
to  Gilead  township  in  1S38,  with  father,  Peter  Keeslar. 

Lampman,  Henry  S.^Born  in  Greene  county,  N.  Y.,  Feb.  22,  i8to. 
Came  to  Butler  township  as  pioneer  in  1836. 

Lockwood.  Henry — Born  in  Ulster  county,  N.  Y.,  Nov.  i.  1812.  died 
May  29,  1891,  in  0\'id  township,  where  he  was  the  oldest  pioneer. 

Lawrence,  James  H. — Bom  in  Livingston  county,  N.  Y.,  in  1815;  died 
April  10,  1897.     Came  to  California  township  in  1835,  one  of  the  first  settlers. 

Leonard.  Joseph  C— Bom  in  Chenango  county,  N.  Y..  August  11, 
1817:  died  at  Union  Citv  December  28,  1893.     Came  to  Union  City  in  1842. 

Lee,  Stephen  B. — Born  in  Ontario  county,  N.  Y.,  Dec.  22,  1819.  Came 
to  Union  township  in  1851. 


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250  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

Lewis,  Henry  C.~Born  in  Orleans  county,  N.  Y.,  May  5,  1S20;  died 
in  Coklwater,  in  August,  1884.     Came  to  Coldwater  in  the  forties. 

Lincoln,  George  W. — Born  near  Penn  Yan,  N.  Y.,  Aug.  17,  1S19.  Came 
to  Branch  county  in  1838  and  resided  in  Union  township.  His  father,  Caleb 
Lincoln,  was  an  early  settler  of  Union  City,  where  he  died  in  1884. 

Lockwood,  Ennis  J.- — Born  in  Ulster  county,  N.  Y.,  May  14,  1834,  came 
to  Ovid  township  with  father,  Uriah  Lockwood,  in  1836. 

McCarty,  James  A.— Bom  in  Detroit,  Dec.  11,  1814;  died  in  Coldwater, 
Sept.  16,  1893.  Canie  to  Girard  township  with  parents  in  183 1  and  to  Cold- 
water  in  1833. 

Mann,  Peter  J. — Born  in  Schoharie,  N.  Y..  Feb.  17,  1815;  died  at  Gi- 
rard, Jan.  8,  1897.     Came  to  Branch  county  in  1836. 

Martin,  Ira— Born  in  Jefferson  county,  N.  Y.,  in  1S27;  died  in  Batavia 
township  May  i,  1897.     Came  to  Batavia  in  1843. 

Marsh,  Emerson — -Born  in  New  York;  died  at  Coldwater,  January  26, 
1892.  Came  to  Branch  county  in  1838.  Marsh's  Corners,  between  Gilead 
and  Bethel  townships,  named  after  him. 

Moore,  Henry  N.— Born  in  Peniield,  N.  Y.,  Sept.  27,  1816;  died  at 
Coldwater,  June  13,  1891.  Came  to  Coldwater  township  in  1837  and  set- 
tled permanently  in  1H44. 

Murphey,  James— Born  in  Cayuga  county,  N.  Y..  March  4,  1819;  died 
in  Coldwater  township  May  2,  1892.  Came  to  Batavia  township  in  early 
forties. 

Mallow,  Peter— Born  in  Alsace,  Nov.  10,  1815.  Settled  in  Noble  town- 
ship about  1840. 

Mason.  Wilham  B. — Bom  in  Monroe  county,  N.  Y..  January  ig, 
1820.     Came  to  Branch  county  with  his  father,  Octavius  Mason,  in  1840. 

McCrary,  Alexander  C. — Born  in  Tompkins  county,  N.  Y.,  March  g, 
1815.     Came  to  Sherwood  township  in  1848,  and  later  to  Union  township. 

Mills,  Adolphus— Was  born  in  Matteson  township  Feb.  20,  1848. 

Monroe,  Jesse— Bora  in  Cayuga  county,  N.  Y.,  March,  182 1.  Came 
to  Matteson  township  in  1843. 

Monroe,  Seth — Born  in  Cayuga  county,  N.  Y.,  Aug.  4,  1827.  Came 
to  Bronson  township  in  1852. 

Moore,  Sharod — Born  in  New  York  in  1808.  Settled  in  Bethel  town- 
ship in  1844. 

Morrill,  Ichabod  P, — Born  in  Sandusky  county,  O.,  March  18.  1836. 
Came  to  Gilead  township  in  1852  and  was  later  resident  of  Noble. 

Mosley,  Thomas— Born  in  Pittsfield,  Mass.,  Aug.  17,  1794:  died  at 
Union  City,  Oct.  18,  1865.     Came  to  Union  City  in  1841. 

MerecUth,  Jesse — Bom  in  Summit  county,  Penn.,  April  5,  1S12.  Came 
to  Matteson  township  in  1850. 

Mowry,  William  P. — Died  Sept.  24,  igo5;  came  into  Ovid  township 
in  1845- 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  351 

McMechan,  William — Bom  Jan.  5,  1805,  in  Bann  Bridge,  County  Down, 
Ireland;  died  Nov.  19,  1S87;  came  to  Union  City  in  the  spring  of  1846. 

Mosely,  William  Augustus — Born  in  Westfieid,  Mass.,  Jan.  4,  1815; 
died  in  Minneapolis,  Minn!,  in  1898. 

Mitchell,  Mrs.  Sophronia  (Hawley) — Born  in  Clifton  Springs,  N.  Y., 
Oct.  27,  1811;  died  in  Union  City,  April  23,  1906;  came  with  her  husband, 
Archibald  Mitchell,  to  Union  City  in  1836. 

Morrison,  Jonathan — Came  from  Penfiekl,  N,  Y.,  about  1846.  and  set- 
tled on  the  farm  in  Girard  on  the  east  side  of  Morrison  Lake. 

Morrell,  Jeremiah-^Born  in  Vermont  anil  came  into  Union  township 
in  the  spring  of  1837. 

Newberry,  Peter  M. — Born  in  Saratoga  coimty,  X.  Y.,  Dec.  14,  1810; 
died  in  Qiiincy,  April  23,  1895.     Came  to  Quincy  township  in  1837. 

Nivison,  Nathan— Born  in  Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  in  iSio;  died  in  Algansee 
township,  Dec.   19,   1886.     Came  to  Algansee  in  1853. 

Noyes,  Austin — Bom  in  Chenango  county,  N.  Y.,  Jan.  11.  i8r6.  Came 
to  Batavia  township  in  1844. 

Nicholls,  Ansel — Born  in  Essex  county,  N.  Y.,  May  14,  1804.  Came 
to  Quincy  township  in   1836. 

Noyes,  Gates  Peter — Born  Feb.  25,  1818;  died  May  7,  1906;  came 
Sept,  t8,  1843,  with  his  wife,  Mrs.  Elizabeth  (Southworth)  Noyes,  to  the 
farm  in  Batavia  township,  where  he  died. 

Olmsted,  Nirum  P. — Born  in  Calhoun  county,  Mich.,  July  18.  1839. 
Came  in  1840  to  Union  township  with  father,  G.  P.  Olmstead. 

Parker,  Samuel  D. — Bom  in  Erie  county,  O..  Nov.  i,  1817;  died  Feb. 
18,  1895.     Came  to  Branch  county  in  1833. 

Pen-y,  Edwin  R. — Born  in  Franklin  county,  N.  Y.,  July  9,  1810;  died 
in  Union  City,  Feb.  22,  1894.     Came  to  Union  City  in  1851. 

Phillips,  Daniel  C— Born  in  Onondaga  county,  N.  Y..  May  26,  1820; 
died  in  Algansee  township  Dec.  31,  1893,  Came  to  Gilead  with  parents  in 
1838. 

Porter,  Pliilo— Bora  in  Genesee  county,  N.  Y.,  April  26,  1813;  died  at 
Coldwater  Dec.  20,  1890.     Came  to  Batavia  township  in  1S36. 

Pafidock,  Alfred— Bora  in  Columbia  county,  N.  Y.,  Dec.  16.  !823. 
Came  to  Girard  township  in  1853. 

Paddock,  Ephraim  J.^Born  in  Wayne  county,  N.  Y.,  March  3,  1822. 
Came  to  Branch  county  with  his  father,  Ira  Paddock,  in  1836. 

Palmateer,  Franklin — Born  in  New  York  in  1838.  Came  to  Branch 
county  with  father,  John  Palmateer,  in  1846. 

Parrish,  Asa — Born  at  Honeoye  Falls,  N.  Y.,  March  4,  1811 ;  died  at 
Coldwater  Nov.  18,  1885.  Came  to  Coldwater  in  1836,  and  was  connected 
with  early  milling  and  built  the  first  furnace  for  manufacture  of  iron  work. 
Andrew  S.  Parrish,  of  Coldwater,  was  a  son. 

Parsons.  Solomon — Born  in  Chenango  county,  N.  Y.,  Oct.  15,  1810. 
Came  to  the  vicinity  of  Union  City  late  in  1836. 


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252  HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY 

Paul;  David— Born  in  New  York,  April  i6,  1819.  Came  to  California 
township  in  1S44. 

Pierce,  Henry — Born  in  St.  Johnsbiiry,  Vt.,  Dec.  5,  180S.  Settled  in 
Girard  township  in  1839. 

Polhamus,  Albert — Born  in  New  York,  Jan.  8,  1823.  Settled  Jn  Quincy 
township  in  1850. 

Pratt,  Jacob  Franklin — Born  in  Cortland  county,  N.  Y.,  May  8,  1829; 
still  living  in  Coldvvater.     Came  to  Coldwater  in  1S52. 

Purinton,  David  B. — Bom  in  Cortland  county,  N.  Y.,  May  8,  1829. 
Came  to  Coldwater  in  1848. 

Pixley,  Augustus — Born  in  East  Bloomfield,  N.  Y.,  Oct.  18,  1822;  died 
in  Bronson,  Nov,  27,  1905.     Came  to  Bronson  Feb.  9,  1843, 

Ruggles,  James—Born  in  Toronto,  Can.,  April  22,  1803;  died  in  Bron- 
son, March  16,   189.1.     Came  to  Branch  village  in   1835  and  to  Bronson  in 

1837- 

Rose,  Lorenzo  A.^Born  in  Niagara  county,  N.  Y.,  Oct.  25.  1823;  died 
at  Bronson  March  13,  1893.     Came  with  parents  to  Bronson  in  1835. 

Rowell,  A.  S.— Bom  in  Penfield,  N.  Y.,  Sept.  25,  1812;  died  at  Cold- 
water,  May  9,  1893.     Came  to  Coldwater  about  1843. 

Rogers,  Dr.  Dennis  W.— Born  in  Jerusalem,  N.  Y.,  Feb.  25.  1826; 
died  at  Union  City,  Jan.  24,  1898.     Came  to  Branch  county  in  1859. 

Reynolds,  Francis — Born  in  Jefferson  county,  N.  Y.,  April  to,  1822. 
Came  to  Matteson  township  in  1844. 

Richardson,  Elias — Born  in  Bronson  township  in  1830.  son  of  John 
G.  Richardson. 

Roberts,  John — Born  in  Niagara  county,  N.  Y.,  March  14,  1818.  Came 
to  Coldwater  township  with  father,  Francis  Roberts,  in  1836. 

Root,   Roland — (See  sketch  of  K   R.  Root). 

Root,  John — Born  in  Onondaga  county,  N.  Y.,  Aug.  18,  1823;  died  at 
Coldwater,  March  23,  1866.     Came  to  Coldwater  in  1844. 

Rowell,  Jared  M. — Bom  in  New  York;  died  in  Union  City,  Jan.  13, 
1874.     Came  to  Sherwood  township  in  1844. 

Rumsey,  John — Born  in  Marion  county,  C,  March  8,  1822.  Came  to 
Matteson  township  in  1846. 

Russell,  George— Born  in  Claremont,  N.  H.,  Oct.  9,  1805.  Came  to 
Branch  county  in  1844  and  settled  in  Girard  township  in  1846. 

Russell,  JonatJian  T. — Born  in  Sherwood  township  Sept.  15,  1836,  son 
of  Joseph  Russell,  who  came  to  the  county  in  1834. 

Ransom,  Francis  D. — Bom  in  Onondaga  county,  N.  Y.,  Jan.  5,  1816. 
Came  to  Algansee  township  in  1837. 

Reid,  William- — Came  from  Batavia,  N.  Y.,  to  Bethel  township  in  Octo- 
ber, 1837, 

Shoecraft,  Barnabas  B. — Born  in  Monroe  county.  N.  Y.,  May  19,  1818; 
died  in  Coldwater  township,  Jan.  5,  1895.     Came  to  the  county  in  1854. 


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HISTORY  OF  BRANCH  COUNTY  253 

Southworth,  J,  B,— A  pioneer  of  the  county,  died  in  Coldwater  town- 
ship May  l6,  1892. 

Sag-er,  George — ^Born  ui  Wayne  county,  N.  Y.,  May  2,  1S24.  Came  to 
Bronson  township  about  1840. 

Sebring,  John — Bom  in  Wayne  county,  N,  Y.,  April  10,  1824.  Came 
to  Quincy  in  1854  and  was  connected  with  the  first  saw  mill  of  the  village. 

Shaw,  William  E. — Born  in  Ovid  township,  Nov.  2-^,   1846. 

Sheneman,  John — Born  in  Wayne  county,  Pena,  in  1800;  died  in  Bata- 
via  township  July  29,  1875.     Came  to  Batavia  townsliip  in  1843. 

Shumway,  Alfred — Born  in  Wayne  county,  is'.  Y.,  July  12,  1818;  died 
April  26,  1874.     Came  to  this,  county  in  1849. 

Sisco,  Henry — Born  at  Troy,  Vt,,  Sept.  28,  1810.  Came  to  section  22, 
Union  township,  in  1836. 

Smith,  Benjamin  H.^Born  in  New  Jersey,  April  14,  1898;  died  in 
Girard  township  Sept.  22,  1879.  Came  to  Branch  county  in  1833  and  was 
associated  with  Abram  Aidrich  in  the  first  mill  at  Hodunk. 

Smith,  Abram  L. — Son  of  preceding,  born  in  this  county  Oct.  21,  183& 

Sorter,  William  C— -Born  in  Steuben  county,  N.  Y.,  Jan.  3,  1837. 
Came  to  Ovid  township  with  father  Jacob  S.  in  1838. 

Stanton,  Edward  D. — Bom  Cayuga  county,  N.  Y.,  Aug.  10,  1833, 
Came  with  father,  John  Stanton,  to  Sherwood  township  in  June,  1S36. 

Strong,  Myron  W. — Born  in  Allegany  county,  N.  Y.,  Sept.  30,  1829. 
Came  to  Kinderhook  township  with  his  father  Calvin  Strong  in   1838. 

Stockwell,  Parley — Bom  in  Mass.,  Dec,  1803;  died  at  Coldwater  Janu- 
ary 8,  i8go. 

Smith,  Walter  W. — Born  in  Vermont.  Settled  permanently  in  Noble 
township  in  1842, 

Sanders,  Abishai — Came  into  Gilead  in  1831. 

Swan,  Levi — Came  from  New  London  township,  Huron  county,  O., 
to  Quincy  township  in  April,  1849'. 

Sheneman,  John  Harrison — Came  with  his  parents,  John  and  Cath- 
arine Kenter  Sheneman,  Oct.